DAR ES SALAAM: THE government has said that the execution of new education curriculum is progressing well, noting that it has suspended the execution of the programme for this year’s Form Five students due to technical reasons.
Minister for Education, Science and Technology Prof Adolf Mkenda said yesterday that the implementation of the new education curriculum to Form Five students will start next year.
He said the government had set aside the budget for Form Five students’ text books but the printing has not been completed.
“We thought of the logistic of transporting the books, unfortunately they are not being printed within the country, their allocation and distribution could cause delays, thus after consulting the stakeholders we agreed to suspend the curriculum execution for Form Five students until next year,” he said.
He noted that Form Five students are being taught using the old curriculum but those who will be entering Form Five next year will use the new curriculum.
“All the important preparations have been completed and the books will arrive this month,” he assured the public.
The execution of the new Education and Training Policy 2023 edition and curriculum which embrace competence and skills in learning started in January this year covering pupils in pre-primary education, Standard One and Three. It also covers students in Form One, Five and first-year students pursuing education programme in colleges.
According to Prof Mkenda, the government decided to use a different strategy to fast track the execution of the curriculum and see its impact.
“While we were debating the new curriculum we agreed to use different a strategy in its execution in order to see its impact. That is why we decided to start with selected levels and classes as the work is in progress,” he said.
He said that a study conducted by the government in most of the countries globally realised that countries that started implementing the new curriculum from the pre-primary level experienced fatigue, especially in waiting to see its impact.
He said the execution of the new curriculum at pre-primary education, Standard One and Three is progressing well. “We had decided to end up there thus Standard Two pupils are using the old curriculum but when they reach Standard Three, they will be taught using the new curriculum.”
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He further said that the government also allowed execution of the new curriculum for Form One students in schools which preferred technical education. The schools were required to be verified by the Commissioner of Education and should have entrepreneurship subjects.
Prof Mkenda said that in the new job vacancies announced recently by the government, more teachers specialised in commerce and entrepreneurship will be recruited to meet the demand of new curriculum.
Meanwhile, Prof Mkenda said the government has introduced new scholarship dubbed the Samia Scholarship Extended which aims to assist students pursuing Masters in Nuclear Science in respected universities outside the country.
“We have allocated 1.6bn/- to start with at least five Tanzanians in the field of nuclear science and technology in different universities outside the country,” said Prof Mkenda.
He said there is a significant shortage of trained people in the respective field here in the country while the demand for nuclear science and technology experts is rising.
Prof Mkenda said the ministry decided, in collaboration with all its institutions, to expand the scope of the Samia Scholarship as it was for students who completed Form Six “but this one will help those with qualifications to master the science of nuclear studies.”