Among proposed changes to the O-level curriculum, at least six subjects could be dropped and taught only in technical institutes, The Observer has established.
Agriculture, home economics, technical drawing, metal/wood work, building practice and music, experts propose, should be taught in technical/farm institutes and polytechnic institutes.
This proposal was made on December 21, when President Museveni met university vice chancellors, ministry of education officials and technocrats from the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) at State House Entebbe. Education minister Janet Museveni also attended the meeting.
Museveni ordered a new curriculum be developed and it should address the country’s perennial unemployment problem. Agriculture has particularly been an integral part of most secondary school’s teaching, taught as part of sciences. A proposal to move it to farm institutes is likely to be met with a backlash from educationists.
According to a source that attended the meeting, it was also agreed that commerce, accounts, office practice, and entrepreneurship be merged to form one subject and the same will apply to history and political education.
The source added that proposals followed a presentation from an official from NCDC who suggested that the current curriculum comprised of 42 examinable subjects.
“We agreed that this was an overload on the students. NCDC had to read out the subjects they had and as a meeting, we selected subjects that we felt were core to the learner,” the source said. “Since the president was so keen on having less subjects, which were beneficial to the students, the meeting dropped some subjects [from the O-level syllabus] and agreed to keep some subjects.”
Out of the 42 subjects, the December 21 meeting zeroed on 14 subjects that would stay on the O-level syllabus: English, Literature, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, History, Geography, Religious knowledge, Fine art, Kiswahili, Commerce, local language and foreign language.
The latest meeting was a follow up on another in which the president had met university vice chancellors and their council chairmen and the issue of curriculum development was tabled.
They also proposed that physical education be taught on Mondays and Wednesdays in all schools but not examinable. Computer/ICT will be used as an enabler and tool for teaching/learning.
A learner will now take a minimum of six subjects and maximum of eight subjects out of the 14 that were agreed upon in the meeting. Currently, senior three and four students offer a minimum of eight subjects and a maximum of 10 subjects.
School timetables would also be reduced to six subjects per day, each taking only 45 minutes. Classes are also supposed to strictly end at 4pm. The new proposals from the State House meeting will encourage early specialization for learners.
Some educationists have been vocal against such a move, arguing that at that stage students are too young to know what they want. In 2003, the then National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) executive director, Prof AB Kasozi criticized early specialization for learners.
In his proposal to the education ministry, Kasozi said students needed to study a host of subjects – both arts and science subjects and specialise at the university in order to address unemployment and imbalance of graduates. His proposals were not considered at the time.
A-LEVEL REVIEW
Last October, university chiefs, under their umbrella Uganda vice chancellors’ forum (VCF), called for a review of A-level training. In their annual conference held at Silver Springs hotel in Bugolobi, the dons told the education minister that the current mode of training didn’t equip students with the required skills for the next level.
Prof Charles Kwesiga, the executive director of the Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI), told The Observer that students make sketchy premature career paths at this level.
“These three or four subject combinations exclude students from the wider spectrum of career options at the university. These 18-year-olds are making decisions based on one-off O-level exams which is a big mistake,” Kwesiga said.
nangonzi@observer.ug