It was too late for the ministry to halt curriculum- Janet Museveni tells MPs

KAMPALA – The Minister of Education and Sports, Janet Kataaha Museveni has informed Parliament that there was no time to halt the rollout of the new lower secondary curriculum as per the resolution by Parliament.

Ms. Museveni made the remarks while presenting a Ministerial statement on the continued roll-out of the lower secondary school curriculum after she was summoned for defying a parliamentary directive.

Parliament had halted the implementation of the revised lower secondary curriculum, which among others scrapped termly examinations.

The decision followed an extensive debate on the ministerial statement presented by the State Minister for Primary Education, Rosemary Sseninde on the matter during plenary on Tuesday, February 4.

In a similar development, the deputy speaker of parliament, Jacob Oulanyah had directed the Education minister to address parliament on the implementation of the new curriculum scheduled to start this term. The curriculum was developed by the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC).

Several MPs raised their worries concerning the curriculum which included among others inadequate consultations from stakeholders and poor implementing programs in addition ill-equipped teachers to conduct the program to mention but a few.

On the other hand, the ministry of education maintained that the new curriculum is based on competence and focuses on the wellbeing of the students other than looking at grades only.

Appearing before Parliament, the Minister noted that the decision to continue with the roll-out despite Parliament resolution was made by Cabinet.

She continued to mention that the first examination of the end of the cycle will be conducted in 2023. This means that the summative examinations per term are no more and this will allow children to use all their time to do the actual learning as opposed to simply cramming.

The Minister revealed that Subjects like Kiswahili, Physical Education, Religious Education (C.R.E/I.R.E) and Entrepreneurship Education are now compulsory at Senior 1 and 2 only. She added that the implementation of the reviewed curriculum has started, taking a grade-wise (gradual) approach from Senior One to Senior Four. The training of teachers will be continuous.

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