Revised Schools Curriculum To Reduce Burden On Primary School Learners - Ndoro
The director of communications and advocacy in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Taungana Ndoro, said that the revised school curriculum will have six learning areas at primary level and five compulsory learning areas from Form 1 to Form 4.
Ndoro said for Forms 5 and 6, schoolchildren are to continue to study strictly three learning areas.
Last month, Cabinet approved a framework to revamp the education curriculum, whose thrust is on imparting digital skills and modern research techniques critical for the 21st century to learners.
The unpopular continuous assessment learning activities (CALAs) will be replaced with the new school-based projects of practical applications system.
Speaking to The Sunday Mail, Ndoro said the revised curriculum will reduce the burden on primary school learners while maintaining the quality and relevance of learning content. Said Ndoro:
It was rationalisation that identifies the following six learning areas at primary level: Indigenous language; English language; Mathematics; Science and Technology; Physical Education and Arts; and Social Sciences.
At secondary school level, there will be five compulsory learning areas for Forms One to Four: Mathematics; English language; Indigenous language and Literature; Combined Science; and Heritage Studies.
There will be three elective learning areas from the following categories: sciences; languages; humanities; commercials; technical and vocational; and physical education and arts.
The recommended number of learning areas for study for a Form One to Four learner is eight.
For Forms Five and Six, schoolchildren are to continue to study strictly three learning areas.
The learning experience is made more focused for our learners.
This curriculum framework has rationalised the infant and junior school curriculum from the previous eight subjects into six learning areas.
This rationalisation was achieved through the elimination of duplication and overlaps and shifting of other concepts to next-grade levels and to other learning areas.
The process of rationalisation will see a review of syllabuses to factor in the changes in the framework.
The net effect should not overload primary school learners with both content and language learning materials in the bags and at the same time maintain quality and relevance of learning content.
Each learning area is allocated learning hours to avoid overload.
The rationalisation identifies the following six learning areas, which constitute the curriculum at infant school level: Indigenous language; English language; Mathematics; Science and Technology; Physical Education and Arts; and Social Sciences.
At secondary school, we have also reduced a number of compulsory learning areas to five so that we allow learners to choose learning areas that align with their desires and strengths and to focus on only essential learning areas.
Ndoro said the Government will provide teachers with resources and training to support the effective implementation of the heritage-based curriculum.
He also said the 2024 examination candidates for Grade Seven, Form Four and Form Six will continue with CALAs as before.
They are expected to complete the last two CALAs per learning area for 2024.
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