Success of new curriculum is a win for us all
Students of Iganga Secondary School exhibit their agricultural products made under the new curriculum during the National Agricultural Education Show at Jinja Show Grounds on July 12, 2023. PHOTO |TAUSI NAKATO
What you need to know:
- The implementation of this curriculum was off to a slow start and was hindered by many issues. Lack of training for examiners was one of those areas that was brought to light.
The news that Uganda National Examinations Board has trained 52,000 examiners in preparation for the upcoming national examinations under the new lower secondary education competence –based curriculum is welcome.
This means more success for the effective implementation of the new curriculum that was adopted by government in 2020. The implementation of this curriculum was off to a slow start and was hindered by many issues. Lack of training for examiners was one of those areas that was brought to light.
The other obstacles that plagued the curriculum and its implementation in different parts of the country was the Covid-19 pandemic that saw schools close for nearly two years in a countrywide lockdown.
Some schools decried limited land at schools to implement some of the recommended projects, lack of teaching materials, some teachers were continuing to use old instructional material instead of the revised material, general apathy from some stakeholders, among others.
Therefore, any step towards the success of the competence and skillsbased curriculum such as the examiners’training is worth applauding.
According to Ms Jenipher Kalule, 80,000 examiners were scheduled to be trained but because of budget constraints, they only 52,000 were trained.
She says training for the remaining 28,000 will be done when funds are made available. In the new competence-based curriculum, examination papers are marked out of 80 percent
and the remaining 20 percent is derived from school-based assessments.
A portion of the learners ‘final grades reflect performance throughout the academic year.
As is common with all worthwhile projects, transition from the knowledge-based curriculum to a competence-based curriculum is bound to have a number of hurdles but with time and commitment from all players, even parents and guardians, success is bound to be achieved and learners who are fully equipped to compete on the world stage on basis of skills and competence will be the prize at the end of it.
