The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has announced that it will conduct a nationwide 2023 Curriculum Review Consultation with its clients and internal stakeholders on May 23 and 24, 2023, from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm.
The consultations will take place in every school, and the ministry is encouraging internal stakeholders to participate in shaping the country’s education for socio-economic development.
The ministry says it aims to provide equitable and inclusive 21st-century quality education, leaving no one and no place behind. The announcement requests that the word be spread to ensure that internal stakeholders do not miss this opportunity to improve the Competence-Based Curriculum and support the Ministry’s mission.
The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education’s Deputy Minister, Edgar Moyo, announced in the National Assembly last week Wednesday that a curriculum review process was underway. The curriculum’s seven-year cycle has ended.
The training for those conducting the reviews was to finish that week, and a national review session would take place on May 16th to receive recommendations from stakeholders, including on the Continuous Assessment Learning Activities (CALA) procedure introduced in 2021.
Critics of CALA claim it burdens pupils, teachers and parents, lacks clarity and standardisation, and may widen the gap between urban and rural, and private and public schools.
Meanwhile, several teachers’ unions have criticised the government’s curriculum review process, calling it flawed, rushed and lacking in consultation. The unions have expressed concerns that the review process could have devastating effects on the education sector if due diligence is not applied.
The unions claim that the ministry did not consult widely and that the process lacked consultation with important stakeholders such as teachers, teacher unions, parents and pupils.
The ministry has denied the charges, stating that they have been meeting and talking to a lot of stakeholders.