By Bida Elly David
The Ministry of General Education and Instructions has started validating and reviewing the curriculum for secondary school subjects that were excluded from the syllabus.
The validation exercise was attended by over 40 professional teachers and facilitators from the United Kingdom Curriculum foundation on various subjects.
The major reason for the validation was to ensure that the reviewed subjects enhance students with the knowledge in important fields after joining higher institutions of learning.
Speaking to the media last Tuesday, Omot Ukony Olok, the Director General for National Curriculum Development Center at the ministry said that the ministry is validating five subjects which were not formerly included in the syllabus of secondary school.
“Today we are launching about five subjects because we have serious gaps. We are validating physical education materials, fine arts, music, agriculture, principles of accounts and accounting and economics,’’ he said.
He said that the above mentioned were the gaps lacking in the South Sudan Secondary curriculum. He said that after the validation, the materials would easily be developed.
“The subjects mentioned are the ones missing in our curriculum. When we finish the validation, we will immediately go to develop the materials and they will be taught in the secondary schools,” he added.
He stated that the subjects under validation start from senior one up to four driven from both commercial and academics schools.
According to him, the validation of the curriculum was funded by the government through the United Nations International Emergency Children’s fund (UNICEF).
“After the validation of the materials, we are going to look for a fund to develop the materials and print them and distribute them to schools to be used by our learners. This validation is funded by the government through UNICEF,” he said.
“We got the funding and that is why we are using it for validating and reviewing the curriculum. The curriculum was developed but not reviewed and that is why we are making final reviews meant to make it into final use,” he said.
Last year, the Ministry of General Education and Instructions stopped subjects such as accounts and commerce and agriculture from being taught in schools.
They excluded them from the national curriculum but after thorough revision, they reversed their decision.
He said that the five subjects were fundamental for the students; only that they were not developed – adding that some schools teach the subjects through the old curriculum.