Views on CBC and Kenya’s economic direction released
Kenyans have expressed their disappointment over the worsening economic conditions in the country with poor governance being cited as the core reason for this. This is according to data released by Afro Barometer on Kenya’s economic direction, competency-based curriculum (CBC) and the well-being of the nation, on March 2, 2022 at the Safari Club Hotel, Nairobi.
The research which was part of the ninth survey by Afro barometer in the region was conducted by the University of Nairobi’s Institute of Development Studies. A total of 2,400 individuals were interviewed for this data in November 2021.
The majority of Kenyans believe that CBC will improve the country's educational standards with only 26% of the respondents saying the curriculum will do nothing in improving education. Education ranked sixth among the most critical concerns that Kenyans want their government to address, with 69% of Kenyans expressing that the quality of education has improved over the past five years. Amongst the 50% of Kenyans who said had been in contact with a public school during the year preceding the survey, almost three-fourths said it was very difficult to obtain the services they needed. A vast number of Kenyans also expressed their contentment with respect given when they visited schools or were in contact with school officials.
On the state of the nation and Kenya’s well-being, three-quarters (75%) of Kenyans believe the country is headed in the “wrong direction”. This is a 20 percentage–point increase compared to 2019. Most of the citizens also felt the government is performing “fairly bad” or “very badly” in managing the economy (83%), improving living standards of the poor (83%), creating jobs(85%), narrowing income gaps(90%) and keeping prices stable(92%). Based on these deprivations, most Kenyans were classified as having experienced moderate lived poverty(37%) or low lived poverty(36%), with one in every five respondents(22%) falling into the high lived poverty category.
Despite all the gloomy perceptions, the research found that every four in 10 citizens still believe the country’s economic condition is set to improve in the current year.
