M.ED.

(EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP)

COURSE CODE: COURSE TITLE: = 20%

EDA 6701 EDUCATION PLANNING & EVALUATION

RESEARCH ARTICLE REVIEW TITLE:

CURRICULUM CHANGE IN UGANDA :

TEACHER PERPECTIVES ON THE NEW THEMATIC CURRICULUM

BY:

NOOR EZALINA BINTI SALEH

LECTURER:

PROF. DR. HAIRUDDIN BIN MOHD ALI

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

NO. TITLE PAGE NUMBER

1 Background summary of the article.
3
(not more than half page using your own words)
2 Identify and describe the Problem Statement of the
3-4
Study.
3 Identify and describe the Theoretical
4-5
Foundations/Conceptual Framework of the Study.
4 Identify the objectives and research questions of
5
the study.
5 Summarize of the Literature Review of the study. 5
6 Identify and summarize the Methodology of the
5-6
Study.
7 Identify and explain the Data Analyses method (and
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statistical techniques used) in the study.
8 Identify and present the Results of the Study. 7-9
9 Summarize the Discussion on the Results of the
9-10
Study.
10 Summarize the Recommendations for Future
10
Research/Studies.
11 Appendix (original copy of your article) Attached

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 Curriculum change in Uganda: Teacher perspectives on the new thematic curriculum, is
the writing of Dr. Hülya Kosar Altinyelken published by the International Journal of Educational
Development on March 2010. A little bit about the writer, Dr. Hülya Kosar Altinyelken is an
Assistant Professor of Education and International Development at the Department of Child
Development and Education, at the University of Amsterdam. She studied International
Relations at the Middle East Technical University (Ankara, Turkey), and completed an MSc in
International Development Studies at the University of Amsterdam, before earning her doctorate
from the same university on Education and International Development. She also worked at the
Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a policy officer at the Education and International
Development division. She is involved in teaching various courses at BA and MA levels, and
takes part in an EU-funded Life Long Learning project aimed at developing a joint Master’s
program on Global Education Policies among five universities in Europe. Her research interests
cover a wide range of topics including migration and education, education policy transfer,
education reforms, curriculum change, child-centered pedagogy, teachers, coping and support
within the EU context, and gender.
This article comprising five sections which are introduction, theoretical framework,
contextual background: Uganda, the present study and findings. After read and studied, I have
come to the conclusion of each section as in my next writing.
The background summary of this article is about to investigate the implementation of
‘thematic curriculum in Uganda from the perspectives of teachers. The article shows that
although the majority of teachers are enthusiastic about the new curriculum, their
implementation efforts are constrained by a multitude of challenges. The findings
raise questions with regard to the appropriateness of the new curriculum
initiative to the structural realities of Ugandan classrooms, and calls for
increased attention to the implementation process.
The problem statement of the study is the implementation of ‘thematic
curriculum’ in Uganda from the perspectives of teachers. This article aims to
respond to Dyer’s call for more research on the implementation process by
looking at the experience of Uganda. Similar to other African countries, Uganda
has engaged in various curriculum reforms in the post-independence period after
1962. The new curriculum for primary schools, called ‘thematic curriculum’, has
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been recently developed and implemented nationwide starting from February
2007. There are high expectations associated with the new curriculum. A literate
and numerate population is regarded imperative for sustainable development and
economic growth in Uganda. In this context, the thematic curriculum is believed
to contribute to such processes by improving education quality and more
specifically by increasing the achievement levels of students in literacy,
numeracy and life skills. Similar of many other curriculum initiatives, thematic
curriculum has many laudable goals and objectives. Yet, it remains to be seen
whether the new curriculum initiative will be adequately implemented by
teachers and whether the well-intentioned policies incorporated into the
curriculum will be translated into classroom reality.
The theoretical foundation or conceptual frame work of the study are
classified into two parts. First is the significance of implementation stage in
education reforms. Decision making is a complex and crucial event in the policy
process. It is preceded by analytical and/or political activities and followed by
equally significant planning activities. Although both types of activities are
crucial in developing and realizing education reforms, more attention has often
been given to policy formulation at the expense of implementation stage. Second
is analytical framework. Within this study, in order to explore how teachers
implemented thematic curriculum in selected schools in Kampala, a framework
developed by Rogan and Grayson (2003) is used with some adaptations. The
framework draws on the school development, educational change, and science
education literature, and attempts to overcome some of the shortcomings of
earlier frameworks developed by Beeby (1966), and Verspoor and Wu (1990).
According to Rogan and Grayson, 2003, the analytical frameworks are divided
into three. There are profile of implementation, capacity factors and support
from outside agencies. Contents in profile of implementation are coverage of
learning areas, instruction in English and use of local languages, classroom
interactions and assessment practices. While contents in capacity factors are
physical resources, school ethos and management, teacher factors and student

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factors. Teacher professional development, provision of physical resources and
monitoring are the contents in support from outside agencies.
The objective of this study is to investigate the implementation of thematic
curriculum in Uganda from the perspectives of teachers. There are seven
questions has been asked in this study. They are what causes of low quality at
primary schools, what factor causes lack of qualified teachers (especially in rural
areas), what factor causes inadequate lesson planning, what factor causes overly
large classes, what factor causes lack of basic materials, why the numbers of
absenteeism is high among teachers and head teacher and what is the quality and
appropriateness of curriculum.
There are few numbers of literature reviews that I have encountered in this
study. The literature on education reforms in developing countries has been
increasingly focusing on the extent to which numerous educational reform
initiatives were rarely effectively implemented and have often failed to achieve
their objectives (Fullan, 1991; Higgins, 2004; O’Sullivan, 2002; Psacharopoulos,
1989; Ward et al., 2003). There is now a common acknowledgement that policy
makers need to consider and plan for the implementation stage if reforms are to
be successful. Indeed, policy makers need to view implementation as a critical
stage and understand all stages of reform process as interdependent, rather than
as distinct from each other (O’Sullivan, 2002). Nevertheless, sufficient analytical
attention has not been given to the implementation processes in developing
countries; hence, many aspects of such processes are not yet well understood.
Consequently, there is limited information base that policy makers can draw on
(Dyer, 1999). For this reason, Dyer (1999) argues that there is an urgent need
for research that focuses on the implementation process in order to improve our
knowledge on the actual processes of change, the potential problems and issues
that can emerge, and methods of addressing them.
The methodology of the study included interviews and classroom
observations. The research methods included interviews and classroom
observations. Since thematic curriculum was implemented at P1 since February
2006 and piloted at P2 since February 2007, all teachers teaching at P1 and P2
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classes were interviewed on one-to- one basis, and in some cases on group basis,
following classroom observations. Teachers’ views were recorded on the new
curriculum content, language policy, teaching methodologies, student
assessment methods, as well as the responses they have received from students
and parents. The interviews were also held on one- to-one basis with head-
teachers and deputy head-teachers. In total 44 interviews were conducted at
schools: 34 interviews were with teachers, four with deputy head teachers, and
six with head teachers. Furthermore, interviews were also conducted with a
selected number of officials in the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES),
NCDC and UNEB, as well as with academicians.
In addition, lessons were observed in all P1 and P2 classes, 28 in total.
Lesson observation was carried out at different times of the day and during all
working days. The duration of lesson observation ranged from 30 min to 2 h.
When the school had many streams at one grade, lessons were observed at each
stream for one particular learning area, approximately 30 min. In other cases,
observations continued for longer periods. This allowed the researcher to study
how teachers shifted from one learning area to another. Lessons were observed
almost in all learning areas, yet the majority was in English, Literacy and
Mathematics. Teachers seemed to focus mainly on these areas, and they also
appeared to prefer teaching these learning areas in the presence of the researcher,
possibly due to the high importance attached to the achievement of literacy and
numeracy. These learning areas also appear in the curriculum more often than
others. During observations, the researcher was seated either in the front at
teacher’s desk or at the back next to students. The researcher also reviewed
student work while they carried out written tasks or when they were engaged in
‘free activity’. A checklist was used during classroom observations. It included
items on classroom organization, teacher and student activities, the level of
interaction between students and teachers, teacher feedback, classroom
management, and atmosphere.
The data analyses method and statistical techniques used in the study is
qualitative method. I have said that because the methods used are interviews and
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classroom observations. Normally, two main statistical methods are used in data analysis:
descriptive statistics, which summarize data from a sample using indexes such as the mean or
standard deviation, and inferential statistics, which draw conclusions from data that are subject to
random variation (e.g., observational errors, sampling variation).
The result of the study is divided into three parts which are support from
outside agencies, capacity factors and profile of implementation.
Outside agencies are teacher professional development; throughout the
school year, teachers were visited by trainers and CCTs to get feedback from
them and also to provide additional support. Many teachers were also invited for
shorter training program on specific issues, such as assessment or lesson
planning, provision of physical resources; the schools were allocated a budget to
buy such resources. However, since printed materials were expensive, the budget
was only a fraction of what was needed and monitoring; the pilot schools were
visited occasionally by trainers, CCTs and the representatives of NCDC.
However, the frequency of these visits varied greatly from one school to another,
and the purpose was mainly to get feedback from teachers to revise the
curriculum documents before nationwide implementation.
Capacity factors including physical resources; the new curriculum
encourages the use of different learning materials and visual aids in teaching and
learning, school ethos and management; thematic curriculum seems to generate a
lot of excitement and expectation within the MoES and other institutions that
were involved in its development and implementation. This enthusiasm is
largely shared by head teachers as well, and some of them appeared to be strong
advocates of thematic curriculum. They highlighted the strengths of the new
curriculum as being content organization, focus on literacy and numeracy, and
assessment methods. They believed that it could potentially contribute to
improvements in the quality of education in Ugandan primary schools, teacher
factors ; pre-service teacher’s education does not provide enough support,
teacher education too theory, teachers are not with high level of education,
introduction of classroom teacher system, a lot of objections to the classroom
teacher system, teacher’s heavy workload, teachers motivation and low teacher
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salary, student factor ; classroom size was a big concern in almost all the schools
visited causes Classroom control and management difficulties resulting in
indiscipline (e.g. excessive noise and children dodging exercises); difficulty to
prepare teaching and learning materials enough for the big numbers; difficulty to
reach out and interact with all learners, especially those with learning disabilities
and the slow ones; difficulty to give comprehensive helpful feedback; due to
marking difficulties giving less exercises and practice; difficulty to develop
children’s good handwriting skills because writing space is limited due to
overcrowding; easy spread of infectious diseases such as flu and cough; time
constraints and failure to complete the syllabus if one attempts to give individual
attention; limited space for group work; and lack of attention for individual
learners. Teachers noted that teaching in large classes was already a big
challenge for them because of the reasons mentioned above, yet, effective
implementation of thematic curriculum particularly requires smaller class sizes.
The general impression of teachers was that thematic curriculum would not work
with such big numbers because the recommended teaching methodologies, such
as increasing student participation, learning by doing, and group work, were very
time consuming, a huge gap in ability levels of students, and this was considered
also a big challenge in teaching and learning, a considerable difference between
ability levels of students who had attended nurseries and those who had not,
differences were observed among students with urban and rural backgrounds and
use of English other than a local language that children are already familiar and
fluent in their immediate environment seems to be an impediment for some of
the children.
The profile of implementation including coverage of learning areas
defined in the curriculum, instruction in English and use of local languages, the
nature of classroom interactions and assessment practices.
Coverage of learning areas defined in the curriculum; in general, time
planning within thematic curriculum was considered unrealistic by teachers.
Besides, the curriculum had too much factual content and most schools reported

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that they were unable to complete many subject syllabus requirements in a
school year (Read and Enyutu, 2005).
Instruction in English and use of local languages; In line with the
language policy, all schools within this study were using English as language of
instruction both at lower and upper primary levels. When teachers were asked
about their opinion on language policy, they acknowledged that use of local
languages at lower primary could accelerate reading and writing.
The nature of classroom interactions; with the new curriculum students
have become much more involved in their learning and assumed more
responsibilities. This made learning much more enjoyable and interesting for
children as they easily got bored when the teacher was talking all the time.
Assessment practices; the introduction of continuous assessment seemed
to be the most important issue that concerned teachers about the new curriculum.
They unanimously commented that they learned little about assessment issue
after the training, so they did not know how to carry out continuous assessment
in practice.
The result of the study shows that, despite the limitations imposed by structural
problems and the way the curriculum was implemented, teachers stated that they
did their best in trying to implement the new curriculum as effectively as
possible since they believed it contributed to the improvements in their students’
achievement levels, particularly in literacy and numeracy. Yet, successful
implementation of curriculum reforms or any other educational innovation will
ultimately depend on the extent to which policy makers and planners take school
realities into account (Heneveld and Craig, 1996). As Rogan and Grayson (2003)
underline, in order to be effective, strategies for curriculum implementation need
to consider both the current level of curriculum and classroom practice, and the
current capacity to support innovation.
As the conclusion, my recommendation is Uganda needs to have more
research or studies about this problem as although many existing studies have
been done, there are still problems in the thematic curriculum. Paint a picture of a
school system unprepared to deliver the thematic curriculum especially as the schools continue
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to attach more value on grades in national examinations. They also show how unclear the
thematic curriculum policy is. There is a need to carry out countrywide linguistic repertoires in
schools and communities, examine mother tongue at the end of primary schooling and modify
the current language policy to allow more time of learning English and at the same time
introduce and/or formalize bilingual education. On the other hand, advice that teaching literacy
in local languages will be given targeted support through the special early grade reading and
teacher development program that have been initiated.

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