Curriculum Renewal Process moving ahead
(September 25th, 2018) – Representatives of the World Bank and the Ministry of Education and the Project Team met today at the office of the World Bank to discuss the implementation of the Guyana Education Sector Improvement Project (GESIP) as it relates to the Curriculum Renewal Process.
Among the updates is that the Curriculum Reform Process document will be submitted by the consultants at the end of this week. That document will contain the Terms of Reference to guide the curriculum writers.
The World Bank, Education Ministry and Project Team during discussions today.
Further, based on timelines that have been set, In November the project team plans to engage candidates for curriculum writing.
Over the past few months, a number of stakeholders have been engaged by the project team to record information, ideas and recommendations that will inform the process.
Additionally, it is planned to have a consultation exercise to engage the membership and leadership of the Guyana Teachers Union so that this important process can receive the necessary input and support.
The class levels that will be targeted during this process are the nursery, primary and secondary up to grade nine. Under the pilot implementation phase, schools will be matched from the rural areas against the urban communities and hinterland against the coastland areas.
As the process moves along, there will be immense capacity building and training for teachers, educators and officers within the Ministry.
The Integrated Curriculum Reform, which is pegged at some US$6.03 million is intended to improve student achievement at nursery, primary, and at lower secondary levels. This will be achieved by implementing a phased revision of the curriculum, defined not only as the content students are expected to learn in each subject and grade level, but also the way in which that content is taught. Emphasis will be placed on interactive, student-centred pedagogies, social inclusion and gender-informed approaches.
Additionally, the pilot schools will be randomly assigned from a sampling frame in selected regions to enable an impact evaluation.
The Ministry of Education (MoE) intends to draw on the experience of the pilot schools and feedback gathered will inform further revisions before the new subject curriculum is scaled up nationwide.