Revised curriculum must benefit students

A curriculum is a means to achieving the goals of education.

These goals are decided based on the philosophical, sociological, economic and technical focus of the nation.

They are common to all schools within the country.

Apart from these, some global goals are also formed as goals of education and are to be understood by everyone working in the field of education. 

The curriculum also is framed based on these goals and contributes towards achieving them.

There is, therefore, the need for a common curriculum framework for the whole country to inform the goals of education, methodologies, content, the role of the teacher, school and students. 

This should be communicated to all interested in the field of education. It is known as the national curriculum framework.

 The framework keeps changing according to the needs of society and educational policies.

Three years ago, the Ministry of Education announced the commencement of a new curriculum for all basic schools starting from pre-school to junior high school.

The rationale for the implementation of the new curriculum, known as the Standard Based and Common Core for the primary and junior high, respectively, is to eventually roll out the Common Core at the senior high level.

The new curriculum seeks to shift learners away from rote learning to acquiring critical learning skills.

The current final-year JHS students will take the maiden edition of the common core Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and progress with the common core into senior high school (SHS).

The announcement generated discussion among the general public, especially parents, some of whom made their children write the BECE in 2023 instead of this year.

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), however, says there is no cause for alarm, at least based on the trial test it has conducted among students in some selected schools across the country.

The revised curriculum, which effectively takes off in the 2024/2025 academic year, will also usher in significant changes at the SHS level.

For instance, General Science students will no longer be required to study Core and Elective Mathematics as separate examinable subjects.

Instead, the two would be replaced by Additional Mathematics (Add Maths).

Also, such Science students will no longer study Integrated Science because they are already studying Pure Science.

Per the curriculum, students pursuing all other programmes at the SHS level are the ones who will study Integrated Science, which will now be called General Science and Modern Mathematics instead of Core Mathematics.

The importance of a particular subject depends on the extent to which the subject is helpful in achieving the aims of education.

If any subject is more useful for achieving the educational objectives, then its importance and the expected benefits for the learners increase accordingly.

Our interest is to see that any changes in the educational sector should be of benefit to the children, who would be equipped to effectively take over the affairs of the country.

Of major concern to many citizens, particularly parents and civil society organisations in the education space, is the issue of textbooks for the students.

Currently, final-year JHS students will be sitting the examination in less than five months from now, yet they do not have any textbook to rely on.

 The Daily Graphic shares in their concern.

Their only source of knowledge for this maiden examination is what the teachers are providing them based on the teacher's resource pack prepared and distributed to all teachers.

The Daily Graphic acknowledges the effort of the Ministry of Education to ensure that the gap between the introduction of the new curriculum and the availability of the textbooks is bridged with the introduction of the resource pack.

However, we insist that textbooks are critical for better learning outcomes and call for their provision because the resource pack alone is definitely not enough.