A draft curriculum framework and some syllabi have already been developed. The new curriculum will also include civic education as a subject. Students will now also choose three subjects as core-subjects in their senior school instead of five subjects plus other subjects of specialisation.
Officials said the vision of the new curriculum is to provide all Gambian children with opportunities to experience high-quality basic education in positive and secure learning environments so that each child’s potential to learn and explore and to become responsible, competent and productive citizens can be realised.
As part of the sensitisation process on this new reform curriculum, CREDD of MoBSE yesterday organised a day-long engagement with the media at a convergence held at the Region One Education Conference Hall.
The curriculum reforms have also attempted to respond to the following questions and concerns such as: What type of citizens is The Gambia looking for? What type of learners does The Gambia need? What types of values are promoted and what core competencies are learners supposed to develop? These are among the questions the reforms would respond to.
Momodou Jeng, the director of CREDD at the Ministry of Basic Education, spoke at length on the significance of the document, claiming that they have been in the process of developing the document since 2017.
“The media is an important and critical stakeholder because we want your partnership in disseminating the information in the reform processes,” he posited.
Curriculum development, Mr Jeng said, is everybody's business. “We are all in this process together especially when we agree that this is a good draft that we should start implementing. We need everybody’s participation in the implementation process of the curriculum; be it parents or other ministries.”
He expatiated: “Curriculum implementation shouldn’t only be limited to the schools. Curriculum implementation goes far beyond the four corners of the classrooms.
“We want to shift our curriculum from design to competence based. We are emphasising the development of critical competence. But we are also saying that the value in a country has to be significantly incorporated into the curriculum designed.
“Again, you will see the values that we are talking about are missing things because if you focus only on what knowledge they get in maths and science, that’s important. But the values and attitudes these people are developing is also critical. So when they go out as scientists among others, they will also go out applying the profession with the right attitudes and the right values. Therefore, the shift is also promoting this.”
