A-level students to repeat only subjects they have failed in newly proposed curriculum 

The National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) has said students at Advanced level (A-level) will be required to repeat only subjects they have failed or need to improve in the newly proposed upper education curriculum.

This was revealed on Sunday by the manager Secondary Department at NCDC, John Okumu during a press conference held at the centre headquarters. 

Currently, students who fail to get desired points to advance towards their careers are made to repeat the whole sitting even when they have passed some of the subjects in their combinations. 

However, with the new curriculum under review, Okumu said learners will not be required to repeat all the subjects if they pass some, or if they desire to repeat certain subjects for purposes of improving their scores.

“So, we are proposing that learners should only be made to repeat a failed subject, or a learner may not have failed because for example scoring an E is not failing but you can seat for the sake of improving your scores..you repeat only that subject in the other year,” Okumu said.

He also pointed out that they are proposing to vocationalise upper secondary education to ensure that learners are studying each subject as a vocation and not to simply study things which may not be relevant.

“So, by vocationalising education at upper secondary, we are not saying we are introducing vocational institutions here, but we want to ensure that every subject which the learner goes through, they look at the subject in terms of a vocation..For example, if I’m studying literature, I should not just study literature for the sake. In literature, I could learn poetry. So, I should be studying how do I become a poet. I should have the skills of writing poems, Okumu explained.

He noted that with these among other proposals, NCDC has already made a commitment with the government to deliver this curriculum in two years. 

“It should be ready in 2025. So, we have two years to deliver this curriculum, but so far we have done a number of activities for A-level. The framework is ready and recently it has been approved by our governing council,” Okumu noted.

NCDC director, Grace Baguma said the proposed curriculum is good and will help the country to produce valuable students.

She also underscored the importance of continuously improving the curriculum and making it more relevant to the emerging trends in the world.

“So, it is very important that we focus, and know that we have children that will add great value to the next generations that will come; in terms of behaviour, attitude, acquisition of skills, how do we position them?..so that we make this country proud but also looking at Uganda as the hub of education in East Africa,” Baguma said.

Meanwhile, she revealed that they will be celebrating 50 years of existence, with an international conference on curriculum development which will take place between April 24-26, 2023.

The conference is part of their golden jubilee which will take place in June this year.