Reorientation of Ugandan teachers on new curriculum continues

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ministry of Education and Sports has revolved to expedite the reorientation of teachers on the revised lower secondary curriculum and the abridged curriculum.

According to the Education Ministry, a number of gaps have been identified in the delivery of the two curriculums with some schools failing to use the abridged curriculum and implement the revised lower secondary curriculum.

The ministry rolled out the lower secondary curriculum, which is competence-based in 2020 while the abridged curriculum was developed after the full reopening of schools in January to facilitate the recovery of the time lost during the school closures for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, the ministry says that after realising that minimal training was conducted prior to the implementation of the two curriculums, they plan to expedite another orientation program to bridge the gaps.

Dr. Dennis Mugimba, the spokesperson of the ministry of education, says that the two curriculums are important, arguing that it is pertinent that the teachers receive enough training for effective implementation.

According to  Mugimba, the reorientation targets to address both the teacher and parent’s worries about the curriculum.

Many parents limited knowledge about the revised curriculum and its assessment. Unlike the old curriculum where learners were graded out of 100%, under the revised curriculum grades are given out of 1, 2, and 3.

This change in the grading confused the parents and according to Mugimba schools are expected to mobilize their parents to sensitize them on the assessment under the revised lower secondary curriculum.

Meanwhile, as the ministry struggles to ensure that the teachers are reoriented on the use of the curriculums and help the parents to understand the assessment, it should be noted that it failed to pilot the curriculum before rolling it.

Although the ministry had plans to pilot the revised lower secondary curriculum, it did not kick start the process as planned.

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