Ministry Working to Complete Revised Primary Curriculum

Salomie Evering, Acting Deputy Chief Education Officer in the Ministry of Education and Youth, has said that the Ministry was making every effort to ensure that the supporting material for the revised primary curriculum for grades one to three, would be made available for the new academic year.
“We are making all the effort to have the supporting material completed for September, and that is under the Primary Education Support Programme. It is an integrated curriculum so we do not have discreet areas, but children will have work books on ‘Who am I’, ‘My Body’ and various other things,” she told JIS News.
The revised primary curriculum, which has already been implemented across the island, covers topics such as citizenship, rights and responsibilities, conflict resolution and essential features of Jamaican culture.
Meanwhile, the Acting Chief Education Officer told JIS News that the revised early childhood curriculum, which provides for a smooth transition between the basic and primary levels, was ready. “We have always noted a gap between the early childhood and the primary levels and what we want to do is to close that gap so there is a smooth transition,” she said.
Mrs. Evering added that at the early childhood level, more emphasis was being placed on the developmental stages of the child, and some of the topics covered include ‘Myself’ and ‘Who am I’.
Education Minister Maxine Henry Wilson, in her sectoral presentation in the House of Representatives on July 12, had said that the new early childhood education curriculum was “child-centered in approach and is supported by a framework of developmental objectives such as language and aesthetics, which ensure progression and continuity across age ranges and stages of development”.
Turning to the secondary level curriculum, Mrs. Evering pointed out that the programme was more competency-based. “While you are going through the curriculum, you are consciously thinking of the competencies the students need to possess, so it is more skill and competency based,” she informed.
In the meantime, Mrs. Evering revealed that the special education curriculum at the Mico Teachers College has been revised.
“They have done some revision and there are going to be three new options in the special education curriculum. They will be looking at areas such as mild and moderate disabilities, deaf and hard of hearing, blindness and visual impairment,” she informed.
The Ministry of Education and Youth revises the curricula from the early childhood to the secondary level every five years.
Teachers’ colleges are involved as stakeholders in the process, Mrs. Evering said, as “the teachers will have to come out to teach the guides”.