Primary and Secondary Education Minister Torerayi Moyo on Thursday, 21 September, said education stakeholders will know at the end of this month whether the Continuous Assessment Learning Activities (CALA) will be discontinued or not, reported The Herald.
Addressing pupils, teachers and stakeholders attending the official opening of the 3rd National Annual Science, Sport and Arts Festival (NASSAF) at Chaplin High School in Gweru yesterday, Moyo said the fate of CALA will be revealed at the end of this month when findings of the recent public hearings are made public. He said:
As you are all aware, the Curriculum Framework for Primary and Secondary Education ran its full cycle from September 2015 to September 2022 and is now under review.
I take this opportunity to thank all the parents, the pupils themselves, stakeholders and partners in education who took their time to attend the consultative meetings that were held to gather their views on the transformation of our curriculum to meet the industrial and other social imperatives for national development.
Minister Moyo said the ministry has hired a team of consultants to assist in sifting through and synthesising the data in order to review and update the curriculum in line with the wishes of the citizens.
The Government engaged the parents and stakeholders to make submissions on what they were taught in schools and I am sure parents and stakeholders did make submissions.
We are overwhelmed with phone calls from people who want to know the fate of CALA.
They want to know whether or not it is going to be discontinued and that response lies in the report that will be ready for public consumption at the end of the month.
The fate of CALA lies in the data that was collected. This evidence from the process will inform the decision on the curriculum for the next seven-year cycle.
In May 2023, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education invited stakeholders to give their input on the CALA issue.
During the curriculum review consultations, it emerged that some parents and guardians want CALA to continue but with some alterations while others said CALA should be scrapped altogether arguing that learners from low-income families cannot afford it.
CALA is a departure from the traditional knowledge-based final examination model to a model whereby learners’ practical and behavioural skills are assessed continuously.
Coursework now contributes 30 percent to their final marks, while summative or knowledge skills assessed during examinations contribute 70 percent to the candidate’s final grade.
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