BY AMBROSE GAHENE
National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) has called upon all head teachers of private and public secondary schools, that all schools offering the Uganda curriculum must teach senior one learners following the revised competence based curriculum that was rolled out in February, 2020.
While addressing Journalists at Uganda Media Centre, NCDC Director, Dr Grace K Baguma said; the revised curriculum is competence based, aimed at emphasizing the development of the learners ability “to do” rather than “to know”.
“This curriculum was rolled out in February 2020 to senior one learners. Senior one learners reporting on 12th April 2021 are expected to continue with the revised curriculum”, she said.
Dr Baguma pointed out that all private schools are advised to adhere to the demands of the revised competence based curriculum and avoid mixing the revised curriculum with the old curriculum in senior one. She called upon the Directorate of Education Standards (DES) and all District administrators to conduct regular school inspections to ensure that all schools teach senior one learners following the revised lower secondary school curriculum.
“All teachers who have been oriented to the revised Lower Secondary Curriculum are asked to help their colleagues at school to understand the expectations of the new curriculum. Master Trainers should support teachers in their Districts or Regions in making them understand the curriculum deeper”, she added.
Implementation Strategy
According to NCDC, the implementation of the revised lower secondary school curriculum is designed to take on a phased approach starting with senior one in 2020 but due to COVID 19 Pandemic, senior one will end their academic year in July 2021 and in August 2021, they will join senior Two.
“The implementation strategy moves along with monitoring and evaluation meetings to provide teacher support and sensitization of District and School Administrators”, emphasized Dr Baguma. She said there will be continued support for teachers through cluster meetings at School and District levels.
Curriculum materials
NCDC developed materials relevant to the competence based curriculum such as syllabuses, prototype textbooks and teachers guides.
“These were distributed to Schools and were also uploaded on the NCDC Website for schools to access and print for learners. NCDC informs all schools which have not yet received curriculum materials for elective subjects to obtain them from NCDC upon presenting a letter spelling out elective subjects that were decided upon by the school Board of Governors (BOG)”, said John Emorut Okumu, NCDC Head of Department Secondary. He said the Government is in final stages of procuring learners materials, which will be distributed to all Private, Government and Government aided schools by the Ministry of Education and Sports.
Teacher Orientation
Mr Okumu said prior to the rollout, 20,000 senior one teachers were oriented in February 2020 countrywide. He said the teacher selection criteria for orientation considered Government, Government aided and Private Schools.
“NCDC has conducted orientation for more teachers this financial year 2020/21, as a remedial for senior one and also in preparation for the roll out to senior Two in August 2021. So far, 9000 teachers have been included in the Eastern and Northern Regions”, he said. He said orientation of teachers in Western and Central Regions is scheduled to commence in the last week of April and projected to end in Mid-May 2021.
