Senior Four Students of St. Mary’s College Kisubi sits their Geography paper for 2011, which was the first paper to be done.
The National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) has finalised the new O’ level curriculum which will be launched in 2017.
The just concluded overhaul of the curriculum condenses the 43
subjects taught in lower secondary into eight core learning areas. The
new curriculum has replaced the term ‘subjects’ with ‘learning areas’
Learning areas include Creative Arts, Mathematics, Science,
Religious Education, Social Studies, Technology and Enterprise, Life
education, and Languages. Kiswahili and English have been made
compulsory.
Recently speaking to journalists at NCDC offices in Kampala,
Mathias Mulumba, the coordinator of the lower secondary reform programme
said Kiswahili will make Ugandans competitive in the fast integrating
East Africa.
Students will also choose an additional language out of the
approved foreign and local dialects. The optional languages include
Luganda, Lugbara, Acholi, Langi, Lusoga, Runyankole-Rukiga, Ateso,
Latin, Arabic, French and German.
Henry Adramunguni, the language specialist at NCDC said the other
local languages could not be brought on board due to lack of teaching
material.
Since the new curriculum is intended to ensure that students
acquire practical skills in order to make them productive for the
dynamic market, computer studies has been included in all learning
areas, according to Gilbert Siima, the specialist for Technology and
Enterprise.
The new curriculum is intended to provide a holistic education
which can promote critical thinking, creativity, numeracy, interpersonal
skills, professional mannerism and innovation among students.
Meanwhile, NCDC has revealed that all the in-service teachers will
be retooled in 2016 in a bid to prepare them for the implementation of
the new curriculum.
The in-service teachers will be trained every holiday, until their
colleagues schooled on the new curriculum are graduated by universities
and teacher colleges. Higher institutions of learning have been directed
to restructure their curriculum to meet the reform.
Under the new curriculum, summative assessment often manifested in
form of examinations has been downplayed in favour of continuous
evaluation of learners’ performance.
“The reformed, outcomes-based curriculum requires a revised,
competence based approach to assessment that will support learning and
reward achievement at all levels,” said Mulumba.
Under the new curriculum, classes will end at 2:40pm as opposed to
the current 4:30pm. This, Joseph Kintu (the expert on Science at NCDC)
said would give students enough time to reflect on their own learning,
carryout self-assessment and experiment with the skills learnt in
class.
The overhaul of the curriculum results from a study by NCDC which
indicated that the current O’level curriculum is overloaded, outdated
and does not adequately address contemporary demands of the job market.
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