PROBLEMS
IN CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT OF PAKISTAN
Keywords: What are the problems of curriculum development?; Problems related to objectives of Curriculum; Problems related to content of Curriculum ; Problems related to methods of Curriculum; Problems related to audio-visual aids; Problems
related to evaluation of Curriculum; Recommendation
for curriculum development
5.1 problems of curriculum development in Pakistan and suggestions for its
improvement
Falling education standard is one
of the most favorite topics for discussion at our social gatherings. Everyone
has his own views and experiences to narrate and ultimately, express the expression
of grief and then recall the good old days when everything was at its best.
It is a known fact that our
educational standards are on the decline. We have progressed in quantitative
expansion but gone backward qualitatively, in the government policies there are
planning and recommendations for the revolutionary steps but the progress in
negligible.
We have innovative ideas but
unable to implement any positive change effectively. That is why we could not
achieve the desired goals. We have many leaders in education but most of them
are without dedication to work. We have many schools, colleges and universities
but they are working only to award certificates and degrees to the students
without changing their attitude. The students are just memorizing facts and
information from their text material without developing proper concepts to
apply in daily life. Teachers are following conventional methods such as the
lecture. Textbook recitation and notes dictation. The innovative methods are
not followed even in teacher training institutes. The textbooks are also
theoretical ignoring the activities. All these and many more are the curriculum
related problems. These problems are identified by various policies along
appropriate recommendations.
5.2 Problems of Curriculum Development Process
Look to the various phases or
elements of curriculum development process. So many problems can be indicated
i.e.
- Problems related to objectives.
- Problems related to content.
- Problems related to methods.
- Problems related to audio-visual aids.
- Problems related to evaluation.
- Problems
Related to Objective
The curriculum development is a
continuous and dynamic process, having some goals to be achieved through
classroom activities.
The effectiveness of curriculum
process depends largely upon the extent to which these goals are achieved. If
the objectives are formulated in a clear and behavioral terms, their
achievement becomes easy. The objectives formulated for the existing curricula
are mostly ambiguous and non behavioral such types of objectives can be
considered as invalid. Some of the objectives are too broad to achieve and some
of them are not related to the socio economic conditions in the country. There
are certain objectives that are not according to the psychological needs of the
learners.
Ø
Need
some clear Goals to achieve in education system and for that need some good
objectives
Ø
Current
objectives formulated are mostly ambiguous and non behavioral
Ø
Some of
the objectives are too broad
Ø
Socio economic conditions is one of the reason
in formulation of good objectives in the country, because to achieve good
objectives its need financial support.
Ø
Some objectives are not related to psychological
needs of students
Ø
Need of behavioral and non behavioral objectives
both in education system
Ø
The objective should be narrow down and specific
to the actual need of the society
Ø
Objective should be achievable
b. Problems Related to Content
It has already been mentioned
that curriculum development is a dynamic process. So it must be flexible enough
to be changed from time to time along with the changes occurring in the
society. But in our country, researches in curriculum development are very rare
which make it static.
Some of the defects of existing
subject matter are as under;
- The content is not selected on the basis of research.
- To content does not help in the achievement of
desired goals.
- The content is not suitable to the life situation of
the learners.
- There is a lack of horizontal and vertical
coordination in various concepts.
- The content does not demand active participation of
learners, instead it encourages rote memory.
- Logical sequence (when required) is missing.
- The subject matter does not help in the development
of understanding, indicative reasoning and desired creative abilities.
- principle of representative content ignored
- No motivation and interest for students
- Lack of physical and mental activities.
- Lack of Situational analyses
- No teaching methods suggested
c.
Problems
Related to Methods
The problems of curriculum
development related to methods of instruction are:
- Methods of instruction are not suggested by the
curriculum planners.
- Methods of instruction which are being followed in
the classroom do not help in the achievement of desired goals.
- Teachers take last interest in inquiry-based
methods.
- Participatory or communicative approaches are not
followed in the class.
- Methods are not helping the learners to develop
various skills.
- The existing teacher training programmes do not fulfill
the requirements of the innovative methods.
- Teachers are reluctant to follow activity-based
methods.
- Problems
Related to Audio-visual Aids
- Lack of sources and resources in educational
institutes affects badly the implementation of curriculum development.
- Teachers are not properly trained in preparation and
used of low cost material.
- The curriculum planners have not given any guidelines
to the teachers to use the local resources as audio-visual aids.
- Charts should be accurate but it always missing the
third dimensional attribute and must be viewed from a fixed position
- The aids must be relevant to the concept need to be
developed
- the audio-visual should be interesting for the
students
- chalk board is the oldest aid of teaching but chalk
is a source of pollution and it all depend on teacher hand writing
- power failure (electricity) problem, it sometime
damage audio-visual aids
- Hardware problem in electronic AV aids
- Overburden
class room, the problem of visibility of small charts to all students
-
- Problems
Related to Evaluation
·
Proper evaluation programme is not suggested by
the curriculum planners.
·
The test items are not related to the objectives
of the relevant course.
·
Most of the test items are ambiguous.
·
Only cognitive aspect is emphasized in
evaluation.
·
The content validity is very low in existing
evaluation system.
·
The concept of continuous evaluation in to
applied.
5.3 GENERAL
RECOMMENDATION FOR CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
- The
curriculum should base upon research and not on the basis of opinions of
experts.
- Some
of the enthusiast working teachers should be involved in curriculum
development.
- The
objectives must be spelt out in specific behavioral terms.
- While
setting the objectives, equal weightage must be given to all the domains
such as cognitive affective and psychomotor.
- Curriculum
should be future oriented to cope with the needs of 21st
century, which is expected to be scientific and technological
- Curriculum
should be activity based
- Curriculum
must provide a high order of understanding inductive reasoning and
application of knowledge in the situation
- Instead
of product based instruction, there should be an emphasis on processes of learning
- Curriculum
should be according to the social, cultural and economic conditions of the
country
- Teachers
guides should be prepared to provide them help in instruction
- Curriculum
planner must suggest a proper criteria for evaluation
- The
test items must possess a high content validity
- The
test items must help in the achievement of desired goals
- The
test items should be objectives valid and reliable
-
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