A‘level overhaul kicks out 200 topics in major curriculum revamp

In a significant shift, the Ugandan government has announced major changes to the A’level curriculum, impacting 29 subjects. Teachers will now focus on entire subjects rather than individual papers, with over 200 topics being merged or removed. The new curriculum, set to roll out in 2025, promises a more streamlined approach, aiming to improve teaching efficiency and student learning outcomes.

For decades, secondary school teachers at A’level have had the privilege to teach certain papers of the subject with multiple papers.

For instance, subjects such as History, which had six different papers at A’level, would have six teachers for each of the papers.

However, the practice has been banned by the Government.

Instead, teachers will be required to teach the subject, History and not papers.

The development is part of the changes in the transitional A’level curriculum, which will be deployed this year.

The changes will not only affect History, but all the 29 subjects to be taught under this curriculum.

The syllabus for the different subjects were officially released by the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) on February 25,, 2025, ahead of the First Term reporting date for Senior Five.

The transitional A’level is expected to be deployed by the Government for five years, before a comprehensive revised curriculum A’level curriculum is rolled out.

Merged, removed topics

As part of the changes, at least 200 topics have been removed or merged within the 29 subjects to be taught at A’level.

Of these, 83 of them are in the major science subjects of mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and agriculture.

Mathematics had one of the biggest changes, with 28 of its topics either merged or removed from the syllabus.

It was followed by agriculture, which had 25 of its topics affected.

On the other hand, physics had a total of 14 topics, chemistry 11, while biology had five.

Even under the new topics and subtopics, content taught has also been reduced.

Changes in selected subjects

In the agriculture subject, the number of topics taught have reduced from 36 to 11 and topics which were heavily covered at O’level, have been removed at A’level.

Under the subject, the government has also changed topics from isolated topics to a value-chain approach.

In addition, the government has allowed students to study about any animal or crop of their choice.

Under the old A’level curriculum, students of Agriculture had to study four animals and four crops.

However, the changes allow the child to pick a crop or animal readily available at home.

For instance, the children will have an option to study rabbit keeping, cattle, goat keeping and piggery, among others, as well as coffee, banana, sugarcane, tea, groundnuts and cotton farming, etc.

However, while at it, they must have a component of value-addition.

Under this, schools without farm land will be allowed to use community farms for study purposes, provided there is an understanding between the school and the community.

Under agriculture, the student will study utmost three topics a term, down from five in the old curriculum.

Mathematics

Under the A’level mathematics, the number of topics have reduced from 55 to just 27.

Some of the topics removed from mathematics include simple harmonic motion, moment of a force, circular motion, elasticity and centre of gravity.

The other topics eliminated from the A’level syllabus include coplanar forces, work, power and energy, momentum, vectors in mechanics and the Newton’s Laws of Motion.

Some of the mathematics topics that have been merged include polynomials, equations and inequalities, which are now one topic.

The topics on resultant and components of forces, friction and connected particles have been merged to form a new topic called dynamics.

In addition, the topic on binomial expansion has been integrated into series, while discrete random variables and continuous random variables, have merged to form a topic known as random variables.

Relatedly, the topics on binomial distribution, normal distribution and normal approximation have merged to form probability distribution.

Chemistry

Chemistry, which had a total of 24 topics in the original curriculum, has been reduced to 13.

The chemistry papers have also been integrated into one. Now, Paper One which was on organic chemistry, Paper Two on inorganic chemistry and Paper Three on physical chemistry, have had their content integrated Now, a teacher will be required to teach the subject from the simple to complex topics, but not as papers.

Under Chemistry, topic on gas laws has been removed at A’level because the same content was studied at O’level, but also taught in A’level physics.

In topics such as physical equilibria, the specialists have eliminated phases, and left one component system.

Relatedly, the topics of physical equilibria, chemical equilibria and Ionic equilibria, have been merged into one topic known as equilibria.

The topics that were initially under organic chemistry (Paper One), have been grouped as organic chemistry 1, 2 and 3, but as sub-topics.

For instance, alcohols and phenols, as well as carbonyl compounds and carboxylic acids, are under organic chemistry 2.

Organic chemistry 3 has amines and polymers, as well as polymerisation.

Physics

The A’level physics, on the other hand, was reduced to 33 topics, down from 47, under the previous curriculum. Topics such as reflection at plane surfaces and reflection at curved surfaces merged to form a topic called reflection, while refraction on plane surfaces, prisms and lenses, have been merged to form one topic, refraction.

Obsolete content such as reflecting telescope, projection lantern, as well as the cathode-ray oscilloscope (CRO) and optical instruments, have been dropped under A’level physics.

The CRO introduced learners to technologies of structure of the old Television and radio sets, while optical instruments such as camera films introduced learners on how photos were formed using a film.

What next?

The Government is expected to embark on the development of the assessment framework for the transitional curriculum.

The assessment framework will list how the assessment of students will be conducted both at school and the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB).

New Vision has learnt that the meetings for the assessment framework commenced on Monday, spearheaded by NCDC and UNEB.

Why the changes?

The transitional curriculum was developed to align the A‘level curriculum with that of O’level, which is competence-based.

Subsequently, the Government has transformed subject objectives into competencies and learning outcomes.

In the curriculum analysis conducted by the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), the Government found that 20% of the content taught at A‘level was already covered at O’level.

According to Dr Grace Baguma, the NCDC executive director, the above reasons explains why they developed the transitional curriculum.

“We have released the syllabus ahead of time to facilitate the transition. The syllabus can be easily accessed on our website.”

NCDC executive director Dr Grace Baguma.

Baguma said no new textbooks are needed, urging schools to utilise the already existing reading material, but following the curriculum.

Changes in Biology

The A’level Biology has been reduced to nine topics, down from 14. Topics such as classification and digestion in man, have been removed since they are taught at O’level.

Under the Biology practicals, the dissection of toads and cockroaches has been removed. Instead, the students will be exposed to the dissection of rats alone.

Experts who participated in the formulation of the A‘level biology syllabus explained that the dissection of toads was removed for conservation. The other topics removed include cell physiology, gaseous exchange, support, as well as reproduction in living organisms. However, the topic on chemical of life, has been integrated with several other topics.

The government has integrated protein synthesis, while the sub-topic on cell division has been transferred from cell biology to inheritance. The government has introduced new content, such as food security, carbon footprint, pesticide resistance and antimicrobial resistance in the biology syllabus.

Teachers react

Geoffrey Opiyo, a teacher of mathematics and physics at Mt. St. Mary’s Namagunga in Mukono, said the changes are good, provided the universities and other higher institutions had an input.

“We produce students for universities. Therefore, if they were consulted and they approved the elimination of some content, that is fine,” he said.

On elimination of specialisation of teachers according to papers, he said:” I teach mathematics, but also physics papers One and three. I can teach all of them. Those who have been specialising for a long time should be retooled.”

A history teacher from a government school who spoke on anonymity grounds, said: “Some teachers have been specialising for over 10 years, teaching particular papers. Eliminating such papers means they will be out of employment.”