By Moses Baguma
Last week I had a brief chat with a Biology teacher. I was trying to understand the new curriculum being rolled out to S.1 students. I asked the teacher to show or tell me the kind of questions being set. I realised:
1) The curriculum is meant to be a competence-based one.
2) The questions require a student to have sufficient language and ability to play with the language to answer them.
3) Setting questions calls for creativity, wisdom and richness of language from teachers.
4) Marking questions requires wisdom (not necessarily knowledge only) from teachers.
5) For some subjects and questions, it's impossible to have a straight or definite marking guide.
6) It was a mistake not to make literature compulsory for all students from O-level to A-level. Literature can give the requisite language and writing prowess to attempt questions.
7) Intellectually lazy teachers are likely to hate their jobs.
8) UNEB might have shortage of competent examiners and markers for the new curriculum.
9) The major limitation of implementing the new curriculum might be shortage of competent teachers, not funds, although most people might think that it's funds.
10) Most schools might unjustifiably increase school fees on account of high financial demands to sustain the new curriculum.
