The Democratic Party (DP) has implored the Government to equip schools with the facilities needed to support the implementation of the new lower secondary schools curriculum.

The party says the move will help teachers and learners better understand the curriculum contents.

Addressing the media at party headquarters at City House in Kampala on Tuesday, February 27, 2024, DP president general’s press secretary, Fred Mwesigwa, said several schools are ill-equipped to fully take on the new curriculum. This, according to him, if not well handled, might lead to poor performance.

“Schools should be prepared to implement the new curriculum if we are to yield from it. It is embarrassing to see schools struggling with the new document, which has since failed to take ground,” Mwesigwa said. 

The new curriculum

In 2020, the education ministry secured shillings 10 billion to kick start the rollout of the new lower secondary school curriculum.

The money was approved in the 2020/2021 Education budget. The total amount needed to roll out part of the curriculum that year was shillings 40 billion.

Under the new curriculum, emphasis is put on competence-based learning instead of rote learning. The number of examinable subjects at the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has been reduced from 43 to 21. Under the curriculum, learners will be in class from 8:30 am to 2:45 pm after which they will get time for self-study.

Senior 1-2 will have 11 compulsory subjects and 9 electives. At S.3 and 4, the compulsory subjects will reduce to seven. At this stage, learners will have a total of 14 electives that will be divided into three groups.

The implementation of the new curriculum kicked off with widespread outcry about the challenges like insufficient trained teachers, and lack of relevant pedagogical tools.

This, according to Mwesigwa, would derail better learning and implementation of the curriculum.