In the proposed new A-level curriculum students will have the liberty to study for up to five years before disposing of the Course.
The curriculum which if approved will start in 2025, will see students pursuing their Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE)-A’level, study for a minimum of two years and a maximum of five years.
These will also need not repeat all the subjects but only do those that they have failed as is done in Universities currently.
This was contained in the curriculum updates that were presented to the press by John Okumu manager Secondary Department at the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC).
In this new curriculum under review, Okumu said learners will not be required to repeat all the subjects if they pass some, or if they desire to repeat certain subjects for purposes of improving their scores.
“So, we are proposing that learners should only be made to repeat a failed subject, or a learner may not have failed because for example scoring an E is not failing but you can seat for the sake of improving your scores..you repeat only that subject in the other year,” he said.
He further pointed out that they are proposing vocational upper secondary education to ensure that learners are studying each subject as a vocation and not simply studying things that may not be relevant.
“So, by vocationalising education at upper secondary, we are not saying we are introducing vocational institutions here, but we want to ensure that every subject which the learner goes through, they look at the subject in terms of a vocation,” he said adding,
“For example, if I’m studying literature, I should not just study literature for the sake of. In literature, I could learn poetry. So, I should be studying how do I become a poet. I should have the skills of writing poems,”
This was as NCDC officials launched their main activities that will be conducted as they celebrate 50 years of existence.
“It should be ready in 2025. So, we have two years to deliver this curriculum, but so far we have done a number of activities for A-level. The framework is ready and recently it has been approved by our governing council,” Okumu noted.
In her speech, Grace Baguma the Director of NCDC said the proposed curriculum is good and will help the country to produce valuable students.
She also underscored the importance of continuously improving the curriculum and making it more relevant to the emerging trends in the world.
“So, it is very important that we focus, and know that we have children that will add great value to the next generations that will come; in terms of behavior, attitude, acquisition of skills, how do we position them?..so that we make this country proud but also looking at Uganda as the hub of education in East Africa,” Baguma said.
The 50 years jubilee will be kick-started with an international conference on curriculum development which will take place between April 26-27
