NEW KCSE SET TEXTS
The government is approving new set books for secondary schools and Teachers Training Colleges (TTCs).
The books will be used from May 2022 when the present Form 2 students join Form 3
KCSE set texts are replaced after four years have elapsed.
The process of books replacement is subjected to a rigorous panel, which includes Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) officers and quality assurance standard officers from the Ministry of Education (MoE).
Teachers, tutors in TTCs and university dons in English and Kiswahili are also used in the evaluation process.
KICD evaluates the books to determine suitability for use in relation to the objectives of secondary and TTC curricular.
This time round, KICD received a total of 142 books from 39 publishers after the horn of submission honked in March 2021. These comprised 90 set books for Kiswahili and 52 for English.
Presently, 10 books are listed under this category.
▪︎ _A Grain of Wheat_ by Ngugi wa Thiong’o, _Perched Earth_ by Elieshi Lemo, _The Successor_ by Francis Imbuga, _The Floods_ by John Ruganda and _Julius Caesar_ by William Shakespeare — are among the vetted and prescribed books.
▪︎ Others are, _Edited_ by Chinua Achebe, _Dilemma of a Ghost,_ by Ama Ata Aidoo, _Maru_ by Bessie Head, _Time and River_ by Zee Edzell and _Silas Marner_ by George Eliot.
NB:
• Current Form 2 students should prepare to sit for new set texts in May 2022.
• If books like _Julius Caesar_ by William Shakespeare become KCSE set texts, then students and teachers should brace themselves for serious English.
How about the new Kiswahili set books for secondary schools (2021-2025)? There was no mention about them.