The Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) 2023 report has indicated that teachers are grappling with the effective implementation of the new Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC) at the O-level.
With just one month to the final examinations of pioneer candidates of the curriculum, the report detailed a mismatch between what students were expected to learn and how they were being taught, writes YUDAYA NANGONZI.
The new curriculum was designed to enhance practical skills and critical thinking among students to improve the quality of education. However, the Uneb report showed that many teachers are not aligned with these new educational goals.
This came to light during the recent Uneb Annual Research Conference held at their offices in Kyambogo. According to the director of Research and Development at Uneb, Dr Tonny Muzaale, the board decided to check the preparedness of schools and students before going into the final assessment.
"We found that the curriculum is being implemented with many gaps. Teachers were still cocooned in the traditional teaching methods as
most of their questions emphasized memorization which was against the tenets of the new curriculum," Muzaale said.
Uneb sampled 377 teachers, 155 Uneb officials, 352 head teachers, 92 NCDC officials, 214 Education ministry officials, and 384 S3/S4 learners across the country. At least 300 secondary schools took part in the research to assess the extent to which the teachers understood the CBC, assessment approaches, and challenges.
GENERAL FINDINGS
The O-level curriculum received a lukewarm reception since its rollout in 2020. While presenting the findings, Rogers Karuhanga, an examination officer at Uneb, said the situation has not changed much four years later. He said the intended education and skills attainment grand objective was in jeopardy if precautions were not taken into consideration by the implementers.
During field interviews, teachers claimed that the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) had not prepared them enough for the curriculum. The shortage of instructional materials, financial, and human resource inadequacies were also key concerns.
According to NCDC, "Before the roll-out, 90 national facilitators, 1600 master trainers, and 20,000 teachers of senior one were trained. An average of four to five teachers from both government-aided and private schools were trained. To date, we are still retooling our teachers on CBC."
Despite NCDC remarks, Karuhanga said the situation in schools was different. Whereas 59% of the teachers had a proper understanding of the curriculum, initially, 89% of the teachers informed researchers that they had never attended NCDC training workshops.
"We discovered that most teachers had made personal initiatives to learn more about the intricacies of the curriculum. This showed that teachers are not yet where they are expected to be in terms of implementation," Karuhanga noted.
Beyond training concerns, most schools lacked staff especially science teachers to match the student enrollment. It was observed that 48% of schools lacked adequate physical facilities such as libraries, classrooms, and ICT rooms.
"In some schools, we found rooms operating as classes and later, desks are put together to create laboratory space without basic equipment to conduct experiments," reads the report.
Findings showed that large classes were also a major setback. Karuhanga cited a case where a Uneb researcher, who was meant to sit at the back and observe a lesson, recorded findings through a window. A teacher, who conducted the lesson for 90 minutes, stood at the entrance due to lack of space inside the classroom.
TEACHERS ON THE SPOT
The teachers' inability to apply CBC approaches was confirmed through their lack of lesson plans. The report showed that 72% of the teachers were unable to specify CBC learning activities as teacher, student, and assessment activities. Less than 10% of the teachers drew lesson plans.
Some teachers were still using lesson plans stating behavioural objectivities while others had learning outcomes. Teachers were still doing things the old way.
HOW ARE STUDENTS COPING?
According to Dr Muzaale, the board expected teachers to emphasize learner-centered teaching methods. However, the majority were still implementing the old curriculum.
"Students complained that the written new curriculum textbooks are narrow in content and contained indirect answers. This means they have to research, which schools were not offering in the form of libraries or ICT infrastructure," Muzaale said.
In most schools [urban and rural], students were engaged in group discussions, which Muzaale described as a narrow way of generating knowledge since they lacked primary sources like textbooks to reference.
He added: "Some students, when given questions, had to borrow the phones of their teachers to carry out research, especially in urban schools. The phone sessions were not supervised by teachers, which may expose learners to harmful sites."
The report also showed that most learners were struggling to interpret scenario-based questions. At least 75% of the students reported working without teacher assistance. Schools emphasized end-of-lesson group activities with minimal focus on whether students understood the contents.
For students with disabilities, the report indicated that effective implementation was held back by teachers' negative attitudes towards learners with disabilities. Teachers claimed they lacked skills in handling such learners in inclusive schools.
PROPOSED TEACHING MODEL
For effective implementation, the researchers insisted that concerned stakeholders such as teachers and parents must have a good grasp of the concepts of the new curriculum.
"Teachers must be given more skills so that they possess the requisite capabilities for teaching the curriculum. The necessary materials and equipment must be furnished in schools," reads the report.
Uneb researchers discovered that teachers need to have much more time interfacing with learners, thus calling for a review of school timetables. The report also advocated for motivating arts teachers to implement the curriculum.
"The current situation where science teachers are earning twice their arts counterparts continues to damage the morale of [arts] teachers. They feel science teachers should be given more teaching loads given their heavy salaries yet moonlighting in schools," Karuhanga said.
However, President Yoweri Museveni has consciously maintained his stand on revising the salaries of science teachers - now in their second year of enhancement.
"... I urge arts teachers not to rush me into hasty decisions. Let me approach this the guerilla way. We're striving to integrate everyone into the money economy. Until we achieve this goal, we must proceed cautiously," Museveni said during the October 2023 National Teachers' day celebrations.
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The basic salary for a graduate science teacher increased from Shs 1.2m to Shs 4m, while science diploma holders were raised from Shs 930,000 to Shs 2.2m. In contrast, the highest-paid arts teacher on the U3 scale earns Shs 1.3m and those in U5 earn Shs 784,214.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Meanwhile, Uneb asked the government to focus on concrete efforts to overcome curriculum implementation barriers such as inadequate budget allocation to agencies training teachers, and fostering periodic monitoring and evaluation of the curriculum.
The curriculum body, NCDC, planned to train more teachers but it is financially constrained. Uneb embarked on training teachers on assessment but the progress remains slow due to funding gaps.
The board wants the Education ministry to issue directives on innovative teaching approaches to include and underscore the use of electronic technology. This is in addition to formulating a policy on the teaching load of science teachers to curb the rampant moonlighting in schools.
"When some science teachers are in class, a boda boda is on standby at the gate to deliver them to the next school. They seem to be running all over yet they are paid better," Karuhanga noted.
Headteachers were tasked to ensure that teachers plan assessments [with schemes of assessment in place] so that questions that require higher-level thinking are given more time in classrooms. There's also a need for schools to organize internal seminars or workshops (termly), equip libraries with books and internet connection for research, and encourage teachers to be facilitators in their classrooms to help students take an active role in their learning.
In February/March 2025, Uneb will conduct a follow-up research analyzing the 2024 results of the pioneer candidates of the new lower secondary curriculum.
