KICD urge publisher to initiate internal mechanisms, dealing with unethical market entry

The Kenya
Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) has called upon publishers to
develop internal mechanisms that will deal with members who sneak into the
market with unapproved books.

Speaking
during a publishers’ conference on submission of proposals for grade five
course materials, the KICD Acting Director Dr. Joel Mabonga, emphasized on the
importance of quality education materials.

“You
know your members. We are required to ensure that what goes to schools is of
high quality. We must therefore go for nothing less but quality,” said Dr.
Mabonga.

 Dr Mabonga, urged parents and teachers to
remain vigilant and procure books that are listed in the Orange Book, which
contains a list of all books approved for use in schools.

He observed
that textbooks that have not gone through the set quality assurance processes
risk compromising effective delivery of the curriculum.

During
the conference, publishers were taken through the procurement procedures that
must be adhered to during the submission and evaluation of the learning
materials, ahead of the rollout of the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) in
grade five, next year.

The
publishers are expected to submit learners’ books and teachers’ guides in each
learning area for their books to qualify for evaluation.

They
must also ensure that their work their work is age appropriate and presented in
the correct format.

The
KICD director futher assured publishers that the vetting process would be open
and transparent, adding that the institute has put in place measures to ensure
no writer disguises as an evaluator.

“The
determinants during selection will be quality of the books evaluated and
affordability,” Dr Mabonga said.

Kenya
Publishers Association (KPA) Chairperson Lawrence Njagi, who was present at the
conference, reiterated KPA commitment to work with KICD in ensuring that the
association’s members follow the book publishing and approval guidelines.

Njagi
revealed that about 150 million books have been supplied to schools following
the government move to bridge the pupil-textbook ratio.

The
proposals for grade five course materials should be submitted to KICD by April
6, for further processing to pave way for release of the evaluation results in
May, with the distribution to schools set to begin in September.