The Sunday Mail
Government will introduce the new schools curricula in January 2016.
Primary and Secondary Education Deputy Minister Professor Paul Mavhima said education experts were working on prototype syllabi, which would include proposals from the 2014-2015 draft curriculum review.
He said the process was due for completion this year and implementation would start in 2016 with gradual infusion of components of the new curricula throughout the school calendar.
“We are now doing the prototype syllabus. Next year we should start teaching some subjects based on the new syllabus proposed in the curriculum,” he said. “We will continue rolling out the new syllabus into other subjects during the year and I think we will be done with the infusion of the new curriculum by 2017.
“We are working on subjects such as Agriculture, languages, Information Communication Technology, Science, Maths, Science, Statistics and Physics. There has been a lot of emphasis on technical education with stakeholders suggesting subjects like Maths, Science and Technology should be taught from as early as Early Child Development.
“Thus these prototypes are looking at how these subjects should be taught in schools. The way these subjects are taught should prepare the students for self-reliance.
“This is being done at all levels and the syllabus prototypes will be presented to Cabinet together with the proposed draft curriculum review, but we are saying everything should be done this year.”
The draft curriculum proposes introduction of compulsory languages like Chinese, French, Swahili and Portuguese.
It also proposes a new grading system which will see Grade Seven final results determined by 50 percent of continuous assessment and 50 percent on national examinations.
At Form Four, the framework proposes that learners’ grades be based 40 percent on theoretical examination, 30 percent practical examination and 30 percent continuous assessment.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Mr Takavafira Zhou said the ministry should consult intensively on the draft before presenting it to Cabinet.
“I think to implement the curriculum now will be over ambitious as little time has been given in discussing the zero draft curriculum framework which is set to be presented before Cabinet soon,” he said.
“The current document mainly hinges on examinations rather than on the practical side of education and this is likely to produce the same students that we have today.
“As much as we commend the curriculum review, we need to have something that is not half-baked; (we want) something that resonates with the world, something that will produce students set for life, but at the moment we do not have it.”
Education expert Dr Peter Kwaira added: “I think it is an honourable thing that Government has proposed to work on implementing the new curriculum next year.
“The curriculum review is an ongoing process and there is need for everyone to participate so that there is continuous review.”
The Ministry of Primary and Secondary education started the review in October 2014, and included recommendations of the 1999 Presidential Commission of Inquiry on Education and Training.
