Govt Reviewing New Curriculum

The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education is reviewing the Continuous Assessment Learning Activity (CALA) after it emerged that some of the tasks and questions are too difficult for learners.

Speaking during a Parliamentary Question and Answer session last week, Honourable Nicola Watson (MDC Alliance) asked the Education Minister to explain how CALA relate to Grade 7 examinations. She said:

Then I do not understand how the CALA relate to those Grade 7 examinations.

This is because it struck me looking at the Grade 7 questions from a primary school in Bulawayo, that even for a child in an urban environment frankly, they were very advanced questions; questions that, yes, if the child has access to the internet and research methods, it is possible that they could answer but even then, it will be difficult.

So, I need the Hon. Minister to tell us how CALA tie to the Grade 7 examinations?

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Responding to Watson, the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Evelyn Ndlovu said that the Government is already looking into the matter. Said Ndlovu:

I would also like to assure Hon Watson that we are actually reviewing the syllabus at the moment.

We would like to have input from them, including the Hon. Member on how we can improve on this particular curriculum that we are using now to make sure that it suits the environment, the level of learning and so on.

This is the answer that I can give for now but I will go back and examine if she gives me the particular school so that we see how the children performed against the questions that were there.

In April this year, parents and guardians under the Our Zimbabwe campaign petitioned Parliament to have the new curriculum suspended, saying it is expensive and its implementation was rushed.

The new curriculum was introduced in 2015 by the then education minister Lazarus Dokora but was resisted by parents and teachers.

More: Open Council