Nine publishing and printing firms have won a Ksh. 2.97 billion tender to supply Grade seven textbooks under the Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC).
The firms were selected from a pool of 28 that had applied to the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD). They include state-owned publisher Kenya Literature Bureau (KLB), East African Educational Publishers (EAEP), Mountain Top Publishers (MTP), Moran Publishers, Jomo Kenyatta Foundation (JKF), Spotlight, Longhorn, StoryMoja and Oxford University Press (OUP).
The publishers are expected to publish nineteen textbooks that the government will supply to schools ahead of the roll-out of the new curriculum to Grade seven in January 2023. They are also set to start printing in September to meet the deadline of distributing to schools in December.
“We are making final corrections through interactive sessions with the KICD before we start printing the books,” noted the newly appointed Kenya Publishers Association (KPA) chairman Kamau Kiarie.
Publishers will be required to incorporate contemporary issues and community learning service learning as provided for in the Basic Education Curriculum Framework. KICD education experts and publishers are now set to converge in a bid to polish the approved books before printing.
The firms will publish the books as follows:
- KLB – Islamic Religious Education (IRE), pre tech, pre-career and Kiswahili books.
- Moran Publishers – English and Life Skills books.
- Mountain Top – Home Science and Business Studies books.
- EAEP – Mathematics and Social Studies books.
- Storymoja – Agriculture books.
- OUP – Science books.
- JFK – Christian Religious Education and Visual Arts books.
- Spotlight – Health Education and Physical Education & Sports books.
- Longhorn Publishers – French and computer books that have been listed as optional subjects under the CBC.
