News British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA)
The new EBacc, a broad, rounded curriculum?
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Developing a curriculum in South Sudan
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ister Teresa Staunton, a Catholic nun who has worked in teaching for over four decades, describes her work volunteering with VSO to support the South Sudanese people develop their new school curriculum: “As high level talks between the leaders of the South and Sudan continue, they seem very far away from the people I live with, in the small town of Maridi in the South West. They are simply focusing on trying to eke out a living by planting maize, beans and nuts now that the rains have come. After 50 years of war in South Sudan, followed by a few years of relative peace and finally independence, people across the country are not going to let it go, they have suffered and lost too much. I am staying in a one-roomed ‘tukul’ house in a safe community compound; we don’t have electricity or water so each morning I collect water with local women and children from a rural area about three kilometres from the town.
Having been a teacher all my life and following a recent volunteering placement in Ethiopia training university students, I wanted to support South Sudanese teachers on how to come up with their own curriculum. The current curriculum they use is based on Uganda and Kenya’s systems, and while it is good it needs to be revised so they can have their own. Our remit includes producing teaching aids and text books: those I have already seen are impressive and there is clearly some real talent here. I will advise them on what they might develop further.
The war and previous policies in South Sudan prevented many people from training as teachers and many colleges were closed. Since the signing of the Peace Agreement in 2005, stability has been returning to the country’s education system but there is still a huge shortage of teachers. A recent report found that in primary schools 65% of teachers are untrained and in secondary schools only 28% have been formally trained. As the Government has ruled that from grade four students should be taught in English, money must be invested into training and workshops to enable teachers to improve their English to the required level.* There are also challenges with resources: the teacher training college next door to our office has been closed since Easter because of a lack of money and food shortages, so some of the staff join us and work on the teachers’ curriculum.
However, it is really positive that so many families are prioritising education. Since peace was declared, primary enrolment has doubled and people are returning in their hundreds from the neighbouring countries eager for their children grow up and be educated in South Sudan. VSO is really well placed to help address some of these issues. By working with educational leaders they are able to find out what the greatest needs of the country are, match these to the skills of volunteers and work to achieve long term, sustainable solutions.
By living in the communities and working with the South Sudanese people as a volunteer I can build better relationships with people and understanding of their culture. Everyone here has lost so much through famine, poverty and the war and they have witnessed unimaginable brutality. I can only marvel at their resilience, capacity for forgiveness and hope for the future. The Church of Our Lady of Fatima in Maridi has clearly been bombed; the windows are gone and the walls are riddled with bullet holes. Despite this each Sunday they hold joyful celebrations with singing and dancing, and this keeps us going until the next Sunday while I focus on the curriculum during the week and the belief that things can only get better for the incredible people of South Sudan.
* Source: The Status of Teacher Professional Development in Southern Sudan report, USAID, 2009
June 2012
he new English Baccalaureate (EBacc) certificate is causing much debate. Caroline Wright, director, BESA outlines the various views on this new qualification.
The decision to introduce the EBACC came as the UK had slipped further down the world ranking in maths, reading and science to 25th position in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) ‘Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)’ international league tables. The new EBacc certainly has its advantages.
As stated by the Government, it will put an end to schools aiming to maintain their UK league table status by simply putting their students through ‘non-academic’ qualifications such as the intermediate GNVQ in ICT, which is measured to be the equivalent of four good GCSE passes, despite only requiring the teaching time of the maths GCSE. It is also a straightforward signal to head teachers that this Government wants every child to have access to a balanced and rigorous curriculum. On the other hand the cross-party group of MPs suggested that the new EBacc “was rushed and risks ‘shoe-horning’ pupils into taking inappropriate qualifications.” Their recommendation was that Ministers should have waited until after the current review of the national curriculum was complete before introducing the so-called EBacc. However, in addition to the recent concerns aired by the cross party group of MPs, there are many other reservations.
The performance of schools will now be measured by the number of children who attain the EBacc, although it was introduced after they took the exams – despite many schools believing otherwise, it is debatable whether this is an unfair measure.
Many secondary leaders also believe that it will ‘skew’ the way schools work. In a recent focus group at BESA, secondary leaders told us that they now have to reconsider what was being taught and establish how they could manage these core subjects – often without key staff, time or space in school.
While it has been introduced as “a broad, rounded curriculum” it doesn’t appear to consider those students who may have a proficiency in art or vocational and technical subjects. Will they be seen as ‘less qualified’? Equally, students who have selected to study religious education (not one of the ‘humanities’ on the list) will now be seen to be less successful than those studying a language or even geography. The feeling at our recent focus group was that, although the Government talks about local choice and autonomy, these measures will all be about outcomes (linked to the new Ofsted framework). “Schools are being forced to play a different game,” one leader commented. iGCSEs are changing the nature of teaching as well, with no coursework and the perception that ‘they are easier to pass’.
Other views included the fact that compulsory education shouldn’t just be about getting students to university. The fact that there has been a 2,300 per cent increase in the number of students taking vocational qualifications since 2004 is surely a sign that a significant number of students recognise where their skills lie and what will help them to become independent learners.
We all appreciate the Government’s view of a need for higher standards in our education system and we all want the UK to regain its leading position in the PISA ranking. Regardless of a student’s future career we also respect the need for core skills in everyone’s life. However, there are clearly aspects of the new Baccalaureate that will need monitoring to ensure that the new qualification does not deliver unintended consequences and stand in the way of achieving the Government’s ambition to raise standards in our schools. For in an in-depth feature on the EBACC turn to page 13.
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