New Secondary School curriculum to roll out this September

Secondary School teachers in the Northern Education Division (NED) underwent a week training workshop on the Secondary School Curriculum Assessment and Review (SSCAR) in preparation for the implementation of the new curriculum expected to roll out in Form 3 come September 18 this year.

The training took place from Monday 21st August to Friday 25th August 2017 in three centres in the Northern Education Division.

Teachers from Nkhata Bay, Likoma, Rumphi, Mzimba North and Mzuzu City were being oriented at Katoto Secondary Secondary School in the city of Mzuzu. Other centres were at Maghemo and Karonga. The training was funded by European Union (EU).

A visit by Nyasa Times at Katoto Secondary School, established that the centre had a total participation of 790 teachers from both public and private secondary schools.

Speaking at the official opening of the workshop at Katoto Secondary School on Monday morning, the Guest of Honour, Chief Director for Secondary and Basic Education in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Ms Thoko Banda, said the curriculum review started in 2009 to align it with the outcomes from the new curriculum in the Primary School Curriculum.

While urging participants to take the training seriously, Banda added that it was imperative that before implementation of the new curriculum in the senior secondary (the junior secondary rolled out two years ago), teachers should be oriented.

“This training is very critical because as a nation we cannot have quality education if we don’t have quality teachers hence the Ministry’s effort to invest in the training of its teachers,” explained Banda.

On Monday and Tuesday, participants were taken through generic presentations on Assessment, Teaching and Learning Using Locally Available Resources (TALULAR) and Special Needs Education.

For the last three days, participants were split into clusters according to their areas of specialization. There were seven clusters in total as follows
1. Humanities I (History, Social and Development Studies and Geography)
2. Humanities II (Life Skills, Business Studies, Bible Knowledge and Religious and Moral Education)
3. Basic Sciences (Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics)
4. Applied Sciences (Agriculture, Home Economics, Computer Studies and Clothing and Textiles)
5. Arts (Performing Arts, Physical Education and Creative Arts)
6. Languages (English, Chichewa and French)
7. Technical (Woodwork and Metalwork)

Nyasa Times’ visit to Hall 2 which was for Languages discovered that according to the new senior secondary curriculum the following new literary texts have been introduced both in English and Chichewa and Form 3 students will start studying them come this September while Form 4 students will be winding up with literary texts that were in the old curriculum.

Training in the rest of country’s education divisions begins next week.

Speaking to Nyasa Times after the training on Friday, Head Of Languages (HOD) for Chibavi Community Day Secondary School, Mathews Munthali, said the training was an eye opener.

“We are going back to our respective schools refreshed and I am confident that teachers will know what to do in as far as the new curriculum is concerned,” added Munthali.

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