Post date: Feb 27, 2014 11:08:09 PM
1. The national issues that prompt and shape changes in curriculum and educational system are:
i. Changes in the objectives of education emanating from change in the social values, beliefs, traditions etc.
ii. Dissatisfaction with any of the stages of curriculum: aims, leaning experiences methods and evaluation.
iii. Change in system of education.
2. The various participants or stake holders involved in educational reform and curriculum change and their respective roles and interest in policy formulation.
i. The teacher: the teacher brings his experience of teaching the students over time to bear on curriculum reform and he/she is interested in the reform to fill the missing gaps that existed in the old curriculum.
ii. The Parents/community: the parents/community provides the necessary inputs of the curriculum in respect of culture and traditions, wants and needs of the society. They are interested in achieving a better society where their cultural norms are highly respected.
iii. The professional/quality assurance bodies: Bodies like NUC, NBTE, NCCE, JAMB, NECO, WAEC etc provides the necessary inputs that streamline conditions for the baseline for the operation of any curriculum. Their interest is to ensure that beneficiaries of curriculum reform attain accepted standard anywhere in the world for effective functioning.
iv. Interest groups: provide missing silent issues that might have gone on notice during a reform process. They are interest in ensuring a match from the beneficiaries of the new curriculum.
3. Potential problems and areas of conflict in formulating and implementation of curriculum change.
i. Non involvement of the teacher in decision making and actual development and production of curriculum materials.
ii. The capabilities of the teachers to successfully effect the desired change.
iii. The cost of producing and implementing some aspect of a particular curriculum may be prompt curriculum developers to avoid including certain aspect of curriculum that involves the use of materials that are costly. Where the materials are unavailable the implementation is bound to fail.
iv. Undefined fear by school teachers and administrators concerning curriculum change. Indeed any change in curriculum is likely to bring new techniques, teachers and school administrators are normally use to the old way of doing things and may present the phobia of adapting to the new curriculum.
4. Ways of managing conflict and mobilizing public support for ongoing curriculum change.
i. Teachers should be given enough opportunities to present their views on what the curriculum should be aim at and how the new it should be implemented.
ii. The national policy on the teacher qualification should be strengthen at both public and private institutions. This will in a way produce teachers that will have the capabilities of successfully implementing changes in curriculum.
iii. Legislation should be formulated to compare government at all levels to set aside certain percentage of their annual budget to take care of curriculum renewal when the need arises.
iv. Periodic enlightment should be carried out to the school teachers and administrators to let the understand that there are agents of curriculum change, and so need not to be suspicious of curriculum change but encourage and bring forth ideas on how and why curriculum should be renewed.
5. Examples of sensitive or challenging policy issues in Nigeria, in particular socio-political and cultural context.
i. Religious associations
ii. Political inclination
iii. Cultural traditions and beliefs
iv. Gender balance.
v. Ethnicity.