Singida — TANZANIA: ACCORDING to simple interpretations from various sources, Curriculum is a plan and experience coordinated for the training of a certain type with specific objectives for students in a relevant period.
This means that the Government measure through Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of coming up with a new curriculum for primary education classes one to seven (I-Vll) is to provide new knowledge, skills, values and life skills to the beneficiaries according to the new environment, current life governed by major changes in this century of Science and Technology as is the name of the relevant Ministry.
According to the organisers, the target is to enable pupils who graduate at that level to cope with the living environment and participate fully in contributing to the development of the surrounding community and the nation as a whole.
Furthermore, the curriculum aims at creating a broad learning experience for pupils and emphasises the use of interactive teaching and learning methods that meet the needs of each student. Emphasis is placed on developing the pupil in all aspects of learning: spiritual, moral, intellectual, physical and social.
This curriculum will be implemented over a period of seven years whereby its implementation is divided into two main parts.
Two years comprehensive learning period for Class one and two (I -II.) which will focus on building the pupils' competence in Reading, Writing and Numeracy skills (popularly known as 'KKK'), a section that has been prepared in consideration to the early years of learning which are very important for the child's mental, physical and social development; thus going in line with the National Multi-sectoral Early Childhood Development Programme 2021 - 2026.
The second part of the implementation of this curriculum is for Class III-VII where the content in this part is prepared in the style of developing competence in eight subjects which are: Kiswahili, English, Mathematics, Civics and Ethics, Science, Technology, Social Knowledge, Skills of Work and optional studies for French and Arabic.
Languages However, in this section, "KKK" competence continues to be emphasised. This is because "KKK" is an important foundation in enabling the pupils to learn these subjects effectively and the teacher's major task is to enable the pupil learn and build the intended competence.
In summary, it is stated that the revision of the Primary Education Curriculum (2015) has taken into account the requirements of the Education Act of 2002, the Education and Training Policy of the year 1995, Education and Training Policy of 2014, Sectoral Education Development Plan for 1999 - 2009, and Tanzania Development Vision to 2025. Also, the amendments have taken into account the Basic Education Development Plan (MMEM) for the year 2000 - 2006, the National Plan to Raise the Economy and Reduce Poverty (MKUKUTA), and the recommendations of various educational studies.
It has been stated that the international policies considered in the improvement of this curriculum include the Child Rights Policy of 1989, regarding the states to provide education to all people where the Curriculum has also taken into account the presence of the Sustainable Millennium Development Declaration of 2000, item 2 and 3, which provides the right to education for all children and gender education that aims to promote learning that focuses on strengthening economic growth and having an equal balance in production.
In addition, the curriculum focuses on the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education. The beneficiaries of this Primary Education curriculum Class I-Vll have been identified in three groups of pupils who are required to be given education as their basic right where the first group includes pupils without special needs and the second embraces pupils with special needs who are identified by going through kindergarten testing and discovering that they can be included in the system of normal classes and that they can benefit from inclusive learning.
The third group is for children with special needs who are determined by kindergarten testing and research that they need special training so that they can benefit from education.
Thus, the training system for these children with special needs will be that of special classes or units. Stakeholders say this is the best curriculum ever in the history of primary education in the country and it gives new hope for the quality of primary education in building graduates on knowledge, skills, values and life skills.
They say that the basic education curriculum has come at the right time during the period when the government is implementing the National Multisectoral Early Childhood Development Five-year Programme launched in December 2021 and expected to be executed up to 2026.
The Programme is focusing more on health, enough nutrition, opportunities of early learning, responsive care giving and protection and safety for children aged 0 to 8 years old. Mwl Mussa Sima who is the Member of Parliament for Singida Urban and Vice- Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Culture, Arts and Sports says the issue of improving the curriculum was necessary due to time to provide education that is compatible with the job market opportunities in the current environment.
Mussa says that the new curriculum for basic education now offers a good chance to be self-employed or employed due to focusing more on building the competence of graduates in various knowledge, skills, values and life skills to withstand competition in this Science and Technology century.
"I read in the curriculum the period of the first two years in the sense of Class I-II, Curriculum is focused on building the pupil's competence in Reading, Writing and doing Maths (KKK) an issue that is exactly the same as the National Multi sectoral ECD Programme which emphasises the importance of learning at a tender age of not more than 8 years as it is an important age in the development of a child mentally, physically and socially.
However, his fear is about the equipment and tools for learning and teaching together with expert teachers who are real experts in teaching because the curriculum is more focused on practice and not on theory as was the previous one.
He requests the government to set aside a special budget for the programme in order to improve the education infrastructure for all schools in order to enable the curriculum flow and bring the intended benefits.
On his part, Mwalimu Hamis Maulid says that curriculum improvements have somehow increased the subjects including French, Arabic, Chinese and Information Technology (IT) while the country does not have enough teachers to teach the ssid subjects as well as having no enough teaching infrastructure and textbooks.
"This is a good thing, but the implementation is really a hard nut to crack because a lot of work is required, including readiness, good preparations and close supervision. For example, the presence of IT teachers in all schools in the country is not easy because IT needs reliable electricity.
Maybe if it is meant for urban schools only" He says that the inability for children to fail in KKK subjects is not their fault but the teachers. He says children love their teachers very much but teachers do not love them, they do not manage them and they are not committed to their pupils.
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"For example, if the head teacher orders them to bring anything, they won't do it until their class teacher tells them because they know him more than the head teacher. It's a great love for their class teacher" says Mwl Hamisi who is a retired but not tired Regional Education Officer.
Patrick Mdachi who is a retired Community Development Officer and the Director for Mtinko Education Development Organisation (MEDO) Iddi Hashim say the revised curriculum is good because it is going to provide good education environment for children with disabilities.
"In the past, children with special needs were having a lot of trouble due to poor learning and teaching environment and unfriendly infrastructure, but now I can see there is a good trend if you read the curriculum, you see that they have been taken into account" says Patrick Mdachi and is supported by Iddi Hashimu who says; "It was very painful to see a child with low vision but having no special glasses, or a blind child who is supposed to be studying in a school that does not have a braille teacher who is waiting for his classmates to read for him on the black board and he/she should write. In fact, it was very difficult but now if they have been included in the curriculum then there is a new hope for them.
However, while great efforts are being made by the government to improve Standard 1-Vll curriculum in order to liberate the child educationally, the United Nations lists Tanzania as one of the countries whereby 43 percent of its children are at risk of not reaching the full stages of growth due to malnutrition, poverty and food insecurity.
