Uganda’s Parliament Tuesday evening stopped the implementation of the the new secondary school curriculum, directing Ministry of Education and Sports to carry out nationwide consultations from all stakeholders before rolling it out in schools.
This followed a motion tabled by Budadiri West MP, Nandala Mafabi, who called on Parliament to halt the implementation of the new curriculum.
Led by Joseph Ssewungu, a section of MPs had earlier claimed that the implementation of the curriculum is not budgeted for in the 2020/2021 budget.
The same curriculum had earlier been approved by the Cabinet, something that has since left school owners and stakeholders in the education sector confused on what development to implement.
The new curriculum was to see the teaching subjects reduced from 43 to 21 among many other things.
Grace Baguma, the executive director of the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) said that the subject content was reduced by getting rid of obsolete knowledge and integrating related knowledge depending on relevance, societal needs and national goals.
Under the new curriculum also, teachers are to compile the learners’ achievements under the formative assessment in the four-year cycle, find an average score and submit it to the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) to contribute at least 20 per cent in the final national examinations grading.
Mathias Mpuuga, Shadow Minister for Education who also doubles as Masaka Municipality MP, told off the Minister that the new curriculum isn’t a policy reform but rather organised chaos.
Abbas Agaba (Kitagwenda County) raised three issues with the new curriculum, saying it is illogical because the Ministry has made more subjects compulsory where out of 21 subjects, 11 are compulsory.
He also faulted the Ministry of Education for doing away with practical subjects like agriculture and woodwork and also questioned the mode of assessment.
Michael Mawanda (Igara East) asked, “How do you expect to train teachers for three days on how to teach a new curriculum for the next several years?”
Bugweri County MP, Abdu Katuntu scoffed at the Ministry of Education saying the institution has broken the world record with Uganda being the only country able to train its teachers for three days to change the curriculum of the country.
“The question is do we need to change? Yes. But what are our priorities? Let’s stop blaming the colonialists, they left 57 years ago. Let’s not blame the education system but rather how we do things,” he said.
Nevertheless, Lt. Gen. Pecos Kuteesa (UPDF Representative) defended the Minister and called on lawmakers to drop their colonialist mentality.
“If this curriculum had been developed by whites, you would be clapping. But now that it is by Government of Uganda, you are questioning it. Let’s have a mindset shift. Don’t think what is written by Mr. White is better than what is by Hon. Sseninde?” he said.
With the debate heating up, Speaker Kadaga told Minister Sseninde, “Have you seen how this issue has sparked debate in this House? And you were going to implement this program without our input and you only brought it here after Parliament insisted. What do you want to say now?”
Minister asked for more time to reconsider questions raised by MPs, but before time was given Mafabi moved a motion calling for the implementation of the program to be halted, a motion that was upheld by MPs.
The approved curriculum if finally taken up will see a school teach 12 subjects at Senior one and two, of which 11 will be compulsory while one will be from an elective menu (optional).
Students at levels three and four (Senior 3 and 4) will exit with a minimum of eight or maximum of nine subjects, with seven of them compulsory.
This comes at a time when the first term of 2020 has officially kicked off in a number of primary and secondary schools across the country.
