Where is the pupil in the new primary school curriculum?

Oct 03, 2005

LOU Ann Walker once wrote that the goals of education don’t matter if you do not consider your students to be human beings. If curriculum developers are goal-oriented, then the learner should be at the centre of their curriculum design.

By Wagwau Jamesa
and Catherine Ntabadde


LOU Ann Walker once wrote that the goals of education don’t matter if you do not consider your students to be human beings. If curriculum developers are goal-oriented, then the learner should be at the centre of their curriculum design.

However, events over the past decade make one wonder whether the child in Uganda is actually at the centre of curriculum design or it’s simply other forces at play. The Uganda primary school curriculum has seen more changes in recent years making the process appear more of a gamble than serious work.

In 1999, Volume One of the primary school curriculum was launched followed by Volume Two in 2002. Before the teachers and pupils come to terms with the new curriculum, another curriculum, for lower primary is now in the offing. This not withstanding the 1997/98 confusion, where the country operated two separate curricula; one prepared by the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) and the other by the then inspectorate department.

From the 1990s, the curricula developed all claimed to have been responding to the 1987 Education Policy Review Commission recommendations of making education more relevant and attractive to the learner. So what then is so unique about the latest curriculum?

Sam Onek, the acting director of education and Ignatius Tabaro, the NCDC deputy director said the latest curriculum was a culmination of a followup report of Volume One, which showed that by primary three, learners had not grasped basic reading and writing skills. This implied that both numerical and language skill of connecting letters to sound is not grasped well at foundational level.
Tabaro said the monitoring report revealed that Volume One, which comprises English, mathematics, integrated science and social studies had inherent weaknesses that needed to be addressed. He, however, observed that the learners’ failure to grasp these literacy skills might not be a problem with the curriculum, but with its delivery.

Many headteachers cite a myriad of impediments that have stifled the successful implementation of the curriculum. According to Edward Wangolo, deputy headteacher Shimoni Demonstration School, reading has remained a fundamental problem in all Universal Primary Education (UPE) schools because children join at different levels, which makes it difficult for schools to maintain standards.

“Reading and writing are the fundamental literacy skills; hence sufficient time should be allocated for them. The curriculum does not allocate enough time to reading and children are grossly overloaded,” he says.

Mukasa Lusambu, headteacher Nsambya Primary School also shares similar sentiments.

“There are no specific periods allocated for reading and writing in volume one of the curriculum. Instead, reading and writing have been integrated in all subjects. The curriculum is too crowded and the children’s failure to grasp these basic skills is a product of limited time,” says Lusambu who is the president primary school headteachers association.

In response, the new primary school curriculum will focus more on thematic areas of interest to the pupils rather than abstract subjects, which have not only made pupils lose interest in learning, but have tended to make the delivery of the curriculum more examination-oriented. The curriculum is also expected to address the low levels of literary and numeracy achievements by emphasising writing, reading, numeracy and life skills.

Tabaro told a stakeholders workshop in Kampala recently that pupils will now be taught familiar themes like ‘Our school, our home, human body and health, things we make, peace and security’ and not subjects.
“Under the thematic curriculum, instead of subjects, the body of knowledge is arranged according to a series of themes which are areas of knowledge that can be linked to a number of ideas,” Tabaro said.

“Each of the lessons in the three terms will commence with a news learning area. For instance, pupils will have to tell the class what they saw on their way to school, telling news and singing among others. This, we hope, will build in them confidence, improve their comprehension and speaking skills,” Tabaro added.

The draft curriculum for primary one is ready while that for primary two and three are still in a draft form. According to the NCDC roadmap, training materials for the new curriculum should be ready this month and trials should begin next month. By December, at least 100 trainers are expected to be in place.

While welcoming the new curriculum as a positive development because it allows for teacher creativity as opposed to the old rigid curriculum, most analysts believe it will remain in dry ink or not deliver as expected unless substantial resources are invested in the re-training of teachers, implementing the continuous assessment system, strengthening the inspectorate and above all, addressing teacher remuneration.

Moses Otyek of the Education Standards Agency said the curriculum required regular supervision, yet the national inspection system had collapsed.

With continuous assessment systems yet to be put in place, mid-level promotional examinations put off due to lack of funds and the ministry running a deficit budget, only time will tell whether implementation of the new primary school curriculum will be successful.

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