Address hindrances to new curriculum
What you need to know:
- The issue: Lower Secondary Curriculum
- Our view: Therefore all must be done to get everyone on board the new curriculum. If it is continuous, widespread sensitization that needs to be carried out as well as needs assessment, let’s spare no effort in effecting it.
In our story, “Schools uncertain on new O-Level curriculum as final exams near”, of March 6, 2024, we detailed several challenges that seem to hinder the proper implementation of the new Lower Secondary Curriculum with teachers across the country continuing to use the old instructional materials instead of the revised material.
The new curriculum was rolled out in 2020 but was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic that forced education institutions to close for nearly two years.
The list of challenges ranges from limited land at the schools to implement some of the required agriculture projects, teachers using the old curriculum because they are unable to get textbooks for the new curriculum, lack of teaching materials, and then there’s the issue of teacher training.
For instance, in the Acholi sub-region, the curriculum implementers, including the District Education Officers, and District Education Inspectors of Schools, have not been trained on the newly revised Lower Secondary Curriculum, and in some schools, some teachers and head teachers in both public and private sampled schools were not trained to facilitate delivery of the new curriculum.
Other issues such as schedule constraints especially for day scholars, knowledge gaps, insufficient capacity of curriculum implementers, and resistance from stakeholders (non-sensitised teachers were cited.
While this seems like a lot to deal with, it can be tackled to aid the much-needed upgrade in our education system by way of the revised curriculum.
With the high rate of disruptions and innovations in the world today, teaching using the old curriculum would be cheating our learners of any tangible chance to compete favourably in the race of life especially after school.
Therefore all must be done to get everyone on board the new curriculum. If it is continuous, widespread sensitization that needs to be carried out as well as needs assessment, let’s spare no effort in effecting it.
Resistance is synonymous with beginnings so this shouldn’t be a deterrent but a sign that more needs to be done to educate and equip schools, teachers, parents, and other stakeholders.
