Teachers from different secondary schools during Senior Five selection exercise at UMA multi-purpose hall in Lugogo, Kampala, on February 20, 2025. PHOTO/MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZI
With just three days left before Senior Five students begin their first term, the government has released the revised A-Level curriculum, detailing the subjects of study or teaching. The revised curriculum lists the syllabus for each subject with topics of study across all 29 subjects offered at this level.
The move follows pressure from schools, which on Monday raised concerns over delays in receiving the condensed curriculum ahead of the students’ reporting date on March 3. The National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) yesterday rushed to upload the updated contents to school portals, after receiving clearance from their supervisor, the Minister of Education. Dr Grace Baguma, the NCDC executive director, had yesterday said:
“All the syllabi have been approved by the Minister of Education, and the management is working tirelessly to ensure all the subjects are uploaded before the day ends.”
Dr Baguma explained that their IT department had a network glitch. He, however, said all the subjects would be uploaded by close of business yesterday. By press time last night, all the 29 subjects had been uploaded to the school portals. The revised syllabus comes three days after learners who passed the 2024 Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) exams are expected to join S5 on Monday. Those joining the boarding section are slated to report on Sunday. Whereas more than 350,000 students passed the 2024 UCE exams, the Ministry of Education last week selected only 250,000 students to join Senior Five; leaving out some 100,000 odd candidates who are likely to join tertiary institutions.
Key changes in curriculum
The revised syllabuses have changed the method of instruction from a knowledge – and objective-based approach to an integrated and learner-centred competency-based approach. Some contents across all the 29 subjects have been rationalised, integrated, and merged with overlaps and similar skills, dropping topics that had been studied at lower secondary or are no longer critical and relevant for the current learning needs. Those that were of low competency have been upgraded to match the advanced level. “The results from the curriculum analysis revealed that there were overlaps of concepts with what was covered at the Lower Secondary as well as concepts within different topics of the same subject. In addition, a number of syllabuses had content that is no longer necessary for today’s contemporary society and the 21st Century,” one of the documents sent to schools read in part.
Dr Denis Mugimba, the Ministry of Education spokesperson, yesterday tasked schools to embrace the curriculum as it has been made very light. “The teachers can read and implement the syllabuses for each subject we have sent them. The printing of textbooks will not be required. Teachers are just advised to teach the topics listed in each subject using old textbooks,” Dr Mugimba said. NCDC has outlined the topics teachers should teach in the uploaded subjects’ syllabuses
Cross-cutting issues
The syllabus has also introduced cross-cutting issues that must be taught to all learners in all the subjects offered. These include environmental awareness, health awareness, life skills, mixed abilities and involvement, socio-economic challenges, and citizenship and patriotism. “These are issues that young people need to learn about and are not confined to a particular subject but are studied across subjects. They help learners develop an understanding of the connections between the subjects and the complexities of life as a whole,” the syllabus quotes in part.
Projects introduced
Projects and project-based learning have been introduced in the revised curriculum to promote active and experiential learning and enhance creativity and innovation among the learners. The guidelines say learners will be required to identify real-world problems, carry out scientific investigations to find practical solutions or products, and write scientific reports.
The learners will also be encouraged to select projects that are relevant, engaging, and aligned with the different topics in the syllabus. Dr Mugimba said the Ministry of Education is yet to issue guidelines to assess projects.
Assessment under new curriculum
Despite the curriculum being aligned to suit the competence-based approach, Dr Mugimba revealed that A-Level learners will not be subjected to continuous assessment. At O-Level, continuous assessment contributes 20 percent of the final mark, while end-of-cycle examinations conducted by the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) constitutes 80 percent.
Dr Mugimba revealed that the marks the learners would receive would all come from the end-of-cycle examinations conducted by Uneb.
“There is no continuous assessment. The learners will be subjected to formative assessment. We are going to come up with a framework to guide Uneb and schools,” Dr Mugimba said. In an interview with Mr Daniel Odongo, the Uneb executive director, revealed that they have started meeting officials from NCDC to come up with the modalities of how they are going to assess the learners studying the revised curriculum.
“The mode of assessment will definitely change to align with the one we conducted at O-Level. We are going to start meeting with the NCDC officials to harmonise this,” Mr Odongo said.
Some heads of schools yesterday confirmed they had received some copies of the revised curriculum on their respective school portals. Only schools with Uneb centres have school portals, which they use to upload the information of their candidates. Mr Hasadu Kirabira, the chairperson of the National Private Education Institutions Association (NPEIA), said whereas schools had received the copies, those without school portals would not access the content, yet they are also legally operating.
“We received the copies of the curriculum. What is pending is the training of teachers and we shall be ready to roll,” Mr Kirabira said. Mr Mugimba revealed that NCDC is slated to start the training of teachers, which he said would be both online and face-to-face.
