The new curriculum excites students as it fosters critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Education, according to Einstein, trains the mind to think, while Mandela calls it the most powerful weapon to change the world. The new curriculum equips students with the tools to make a difference.
Breadth of view
Uganda has recently launched a new curriculum for primary and secondary education, aimed at improving the quality of education and preparing students for the challenges of the 21st century. The new curriculum focuses on developing critical thinking skills, creativity, and digital literacy, in addition to traditional subjects such as mathematics, science, and language.
One of the key features of the new curriculum is its emphasis on learner-centered education, which means that students are encouraged to take an active role in their own learning. This is achieved through a variety of teaching methods, including project-based learning, group work, and problem-solving activities. The curriculum also includes a strong focus on values education, with an emphasis on promoting respect, responsibility, and empathy among students.
Another important aspect of the new curriculum is its emphasis on digital literacy. In today’s world, it is essential for students to have the skills and knowledge needed to use technology effectively and responsibly. The new curriculum includes a range of digital tools and resources to support teaching and learning, including e-learning platforms, digital textbooks, and multimedia resources. The new curriculum has been well-received by educators and parents alike, with many praising its focus on developing 21st-century skills and its learner-centered approach.
Overall, the new curriculum represents an important step forward for education in Uganda, and has the potential to improve the quality of education and prepare students for success in the 21st century.
GRADING IN THE NEW CURRICULUM
| IDENTIFIER | SCORE RANGE | DESCRIPTOR |
| 3 | 2.5-3.0 | OUTSTANDING: Most or all Los achieved for overall achievement |
| 2 | 1.5-2.49 | MODERATE: Many Los achieved enough for overall achievement |
| 1 | 0.9-1.49 | BASIC: Few Los achieved, but not sufficient for overall achievement |
The new curriculum allows students to study only 12 subjects in Senior One and Two, with 11 of these being compulsory and one elective. The compulsory subjects are English, Mathematics, History, Geography, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Physical Education, Religious Education, Entrepreneurship and Kiswahili.
This curriculum also highlights the comeback of Good Manners and Right Conduct (GMRC) as a learning area or subject under Republic Act (RA) 11476, or the GMRC and Values Education Act of 2020. Further, an additional feature of the new curriculum is the incorporation of “peace competencies”
The Lower Secondary Curriculum review in Uganda resulted in a new curriculum that is based on clear values and principles and which includes a set of subject syllabuses and also a set of ‘generic skills’ and some ‘cross-cutting issues’. There is a shift from Learning Outcomes that focus mainly on knowledge to those that focus on skills and deeper understanding.
The review focused on:
- producing a secondary school graduate who has the competences that are required in the 21st century;
- promoting values and attitudes;
- effective learning and acquisition of skills in order to reduce unemployment among school graduates.
The review also aimed at reducing the content overload and contact hours in the classroom so as to create time for research, project work; talent development and creativity; allowing for emerging fields of knowledge across all subjects and doing away with obsolete information. There was need to address the social and economic needs of the country like the mining sector, tourism, services provision, science and technology development and to ensure rigorous career guidance programme to expose learners to the related subjects. This will enable learners to make informed choices as they transit and to equip them with knowledge and skills that will enhance their competitiveness in the global value chain. Examples of the curriculum and revised syllabuses are presented below.
The curriculum emphasises understanding, application and behavioural change. It is based on a clear set of values which will be imparted to learners during the learning process. At the heart of every subject there are generic skills that allow development into life-long learners. Besides, there are also cross cutting issues that are embedded across subjects to enable learners understand the connections between the subjects and complexities of life.
The reformed, outcomes-based, curriculum requires a revised, skill -oriented approach to assessment that will support learning and reward achievement at all levels. This will be criterion-referenced to ensure that standards can be maintained year by year. The new approach to assessment will support the changed emphasis in the nature of learning and teaching under the new curriculum by:
• Assessing the learners’ understanding, not just their knowledge, of key concepts in each subject;
• Focusing on the learner’s ability to apply their knowledge in a range of situations;
• Enabling the learner to demonstrate a selection of relevant generic skills;
• Using a diversified range of assessment techniques like oral, written, performance, practical skills demonstrations;
• Encouraging the development of learners’ abilities to reflect on their own learning and carry out self-assessment.
Knowledge can be fairly easily assessed through written tests, but the assessment of skills and deeper understanding is more difficult and often requires different approaches. Because of this, the role of the teacher in assessment becomes much more important. The teacher’s role is not to write tests for learners, but to make professional judgements about learners’ learning in the course of the normal teaching and learning process.
The new curriculum is based around a set of five Generic Skills. The very nature of “Generic Skills” means that they apply across the subjects. They are not found in one subject only. In the very nature of skills, they have to be acquired and deployed in a context. The subjects provide these contexts. They can therefore be assessed within the context of what is being taught; for example, was the learner able to “plan and carry out an investigation” in Science or “Write and present coherently” in Social Studies. Because the Generic Skills have already been built into the subject syllabuses, there is no need to assess them separately. They are already covered by the subject “Learning Outcomes”. Teachers should be aware of the Generic Skills and should promote their development within the learning activities and look for contexts in which they are deployed.