Revised curriculum will enhance quality education delivery

LAST month, Cabinet approved a framework to revamp the education curriculum, which is premised on imparting digital skills and modern research techniques critical for the 21st century to learners. The Sunday Mail’s EMMANUEL KAFE (EK) spoke to the director of communications and advocacy in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, MR TAUNGANA NDORO (TN), to unpack the new framework.

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EK: What was the motive behind replacing the continuous assessment learning activities (CALAs) with the new school-based projects of practical applications system?

TN: The motive behind implementing school-based projects of practical applications is to enhance schoolchildren’s learning experiences and promote a more hands-on approach to education.

Such projects are often aimed at bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and real-world applications by providing learners with opportunities to apply their knowledge and skills in practical settings.

School-based projects of practical applications can foster critical thinking, problem solving and creativity among learners.

They can also promote collaboration, communication and teamwork, as learners often need to work together to complete these projects.

Additionally, practical application projects can help learners develop practical skills that are relevant to their future careers or areas of interest.

The principal rationale behind schoolbased continuous assessment (SBCA) is to enhance quality education by ensuring that learners do not wait for the end of the learning programme or certificate examinations to exert study effort. It is designed to sustain quality learning throughout a period of the learning. The SBCA ensures that learners work consistently.

It provides early indicators of their performance, with built-in measures of feedback and support for them to master knowledge, skills, values, attitudes and aptitudes in a particular learning area.

It fosters critical awareness and reflection by learners, enabling them to take responsibility for their learning and monitor their progress.

Besides, the SBCA is designed to assess attitudes, skills and values that cannot be easily assessed in a two-hour examination question paper. The main features of the SBCA are that it is comprehensive, cumulative, systematic, guidance-oriented, diagnostic, developmental and formative.

It is a system of using different test modes such as class tests; class exercises; individual, pair or group tasks; portfolios; rubrics; homework; projects; and other assessment procedures to measure what learners have achieved throughout a teaching/learning process.

Broadly, the SBCA is simply all forms/modes of assessment that can be undertaken internally by any school-level actor (learner, teacher and school head).

This means the SBCA includes diagnostic assessments, formative assessments and summative assessments that can be completed while at school.

The SBCA is a form of assessment whereby the final grading of a schoolchild in a given learning area within a given level takes account of all his performances during a given period of schooling.

Mr Ndoro

In other words, the learner is assessed right through the learning process and not only after the learning process.

EK: What does the new school-based projects framework entail?

TN: The project-based assessment is a form of assessment that responds to the project-based learning methods.

The project-based learning method is a teaching and learning method in which learners gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging, complex question, problem or challenge.

It fosters skills like communication skills, self-management, time management and resilience.

Project-based learning provides learners with the opportunity to engage in meaningful real-world projects that respond to or provide a basis to solutions of real community challenges.

The goal of each learner’s project is to answer an engaging question, solve a problem or complete a challenge.

Ultimately, learners demonstrate their acquired knowledge by creating a public presentation or product for a real audience.

In order to assess project-based learning, project work is conducted as part of the SBCA, but it can also be used in the classroom as part of, for example, peer assessment activities.

Projects are learning activities that provide learners with the opportunity to synthesise and apply knowledge in a real-life situation.

◆ Projects shall suggest a learning situation that enables the learner to demonstrate their capabilities while working independently or in a group.

◆ Projects open up new ways of learning through discovery by learners. A well-run project teaches learners how to plan carefully, use their initiative, take on responsibility and present results skilfully.

◆ Projects bring out the innate and creative abilities of learners, allowing them to delve into content in a more direct and meaningful way, as well as create bridges/promote links among the subject matter of different disciplines in a way that helps them view knowledge holistically, rather than from a narrow point of view, or as isolated facts.

◆ Projects help learners to develop skills for living in a knowledge-based, technological society and teach them to take control of their learning.

◆ It helps schoolchildren to learn, plan, think critically and become creative. Projects will develop the learners’ ability to work with their peers, build teamwork and group skills.

◆ Projects are normally geared towards solving problems in the classroom, school, community and the world at large.

◆ They foster learners’ inventive and creative skills, their ability to think critically and to work with others to solve real-life problems. While engaged in project activities, learners have fun as they creatively construct knowledge.

The school-based projects framework will typically involve integrating project-based learning into the curriculum.

Project-based learning is an instructional approach where learners engage in in-depth investigations of real-world problems or challenges.

They work on projects that require them to apply knowledge and skills from multiple subjects or disciplines to develop solutions or create tangible outcomes.

EK: Following Cabinet’s approval of the revised curriculum, what are the next steps in terms of implementation?

TN: The next step is that the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Torerayi Moyo, will come up with an implementation plan committee that will look at the nitty-gritty of the rollout of the heritage-based curriculum.