A new curriculum in the offing

By Bernard Thungwa

For quite a very long time Malawi has been using a curriculum which was almost adopted from other countries. No wonder many people have been asking the relevance of such a curriculum to the current needs of Malawi as a country. We have heard people arguing of the importance of learning parts of a grasshopper. The educational landscape of Malawi will slightly change following the impending new curriculum.

Why the change?

Changes in a curriculum come because of trying to align it with the needs and aspirations of a country. Malawi, as a sovereign state, has her own dreams for its development. After using the same curriculum for a period of time, there emerge other challenges which the curriculum fails to address.

Recently we have had a number of challenges whose mitigating measures were not included in the current curriculum. For instance; the cyclones, epidemics such as corona virus, persistent food shortage, democratic changes, population growth, etc. These have to be addressed by a curriculum that is relevant now.

Inside the new curriculum

The new framework has adopted a 1-6-6-3 approach as opposed to the previous 8-4-4 approach. The 1-6-6-3 approach means that 1 year pre-primary, 6 years of primary school (grades 1 to 6), 6 years of secondary education and 3 years of college education. The new curriculum is Competence Based as opposed to the previous one which was Outcome Based.

Learners should brace themselves for a new curriculum (Photo Credit: Internet)

Simply put, a child will enrol in pre-primary at the age of five. This is similar to a nursery school set up only that these learners will be at the same school with the other learners of grades 1 to 6. They will then proceed to grades 1 to 6. (The standards will now be called grades).

To reach this far a number of consultative meetings were made and an agreement was reached to have this new curriculum. The new curriculum is aligning itself to achieving the MW2063 agenda.

Implementation and assessment

The new curriculum will be rolled out systematically, starting with the lower grades in the primary school. The Malawi National Examinations Board will be assessing learners at Grade 6 (an exit for primary education), Form 2 (as a check point stage), Form 4 (as another check point stage) and at Form 6 (an exit to college).

Teachers at different levels will be oriented to familiarize themselves with the new curriculum. Where need be, some teachers will be required to upgrade to align themselves with the new challenge.