THE READINESS OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS TO IMPLEMENT THE NEW CURRICULUM IN ZIMBABWE AT ECD (A) LEVEL: A CASE STUDY OF BANDURA URBAN PRIMARY SCHOOLS

Abstract

In a bid to align the Zimbabwe education and training sub-sectors to the evolving needs of the nation, the Nziramasanga Commission of Inquiry into Education and Training (CIET) put forward several recommendations. One of the recommendations was that the state should increase access to Early Childhood Development (ECD) by coming up with a formal primary school based ECD curriculum (CIET: 1992). Technocrats in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE) translated the CIET recommendations into an actionable curriculum policy. Between 2014 and 2016, the MoPSE designed a new curriculum and prepared the relevant teaching-learning inputs (Curriculum Framework for Primary and Secondary Education: 2015-2022 (CFPSE: 2015-2022). The MoPSE said, schools were ready to implement the new curriculum with effect from January 2017 (CFPSE: 2015-2022) . On the contrary, some sectors of the society doubted that schools were prepared. The Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), alleged teachers and parents were not consulted and schools were ill prepared (News Day Zimbabwe: 09/01/17). A pre-research research established that 16 private ECD centers dotted around Bindura urban had a combined enrolment of 1200 children which was almost 50% of the ECD market share. This background motivated the researchers to find out if primary schools were prepared to implement the ECD curriculum. Article visualizations: