Teacher training should be aligned to schools' curricula

Apr 26, 2017

Science practicals are not supposed to be a one-off exercise

Just as has been said of most trainings, the divide between what is taught in teacher training institutions and what they are expected to deliver in the field is widening especially for sciences.

Chemistry analyst and curriculum expert, James Droti from the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), reveals that some of the teachers currently practicing are totally disconnected from what they teach.

In an interview with New Vision on Tuesday, Droti noted that the situation is worse for practical subjects such as chemistry, physics and biology. This, he says is one of the reasons students fail or are not keen at pursuing science subjects further.

"You find a teacher branding themselves practical teacher or theory teacher. That is very misleading. How do you disconnect the theory of a subject from the practical?" he asked.

Droti explained that training institutions tend to follow a generic syllabus without specifically aligning their training to the curricula at the different levels where they are going to teach.

This, he adds eventually makes students fail to relate the concepts and principles in a given subject to the practical.

"Learning should be able to link the two. Students should be helped to understand the two learning areas as inseparable with one being the living side of the other," he said.

Droti who was responding to questions on the challenges facing science teaching in schools argued that due to the nature of practical exercises for the science subjects, most teachers never emphasise them while others push for until when the students are about to do their final exams.

Science practicals according to Droti, who is also a board member at the National Council for Science and Technology, are not supposed to be a one-off exercise rather every concept that is introduced to the learners should be followed by a practical activity that not only relates it to real life but gives it relevance for the student to want to explore more.

"You teach what you know and I think I have been a good chemistry teacher because of my secondary school teachers. Teachers need to be equipped with skills to guide students to discover things on their own. For when you find out something on your own, you understand it better," he said.

Though the curriculum review for secondary was suspended, Droti who was the coordinator for the review panel for the chemistry subject says this would have been one of the key milestones to respond to the challenges of the education sector.

Uganda's education system has been criticized for having products that do not have appropriate skills required for the job market.

For the science learning area Droti said they had moved to ensure that the basic level(secondary) opened up the minds of learners and help students understand the interaction of science as a way of life and investigation other than complex and abstract concepts.

"Students are taught preparation of Sulphur dioxide in secondary but there is no Sulphur in Uganda not even East Africa. We were looking at chemistry that is relevant to everyone for example soap making, food preservation and interactions in the new curriculum," he said.

The other challenge according to the expert is the liberalized text book policy in the country that has seen learning material some below standard out for students to use.

Books that have been properly vetted according to Droti tend to be a little expensive schools, students and even government opting for the cheaper options.

"In my opinion, any book for student's use should be designed and developed by the curriculum body and each body must have a teacher's guide," he said.

According to the statement on release on the 2016 Uganda Certificate of Education, ‘Despite the slight improvement in Biology, the percentage pass levels for all science subjects remain low, with almost 55% of the candidates unable to exhibit the minimum required competency to be graded'.

Over 314,000 students sat for last year's exams and since sciences are compulsory at O level, it therefore means over 150,000 couldn't be graded in these particular subjects.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});