A section of legislators has tasked Government to provide schools with learning materials saying several secondary schools were using the old curriculum to teach the new curriculum.
Kalungu West Mp Joseph Gonzaga Ssewungu says that Government introduced the new lower secondary school curriculum in February 2020, but up to now, it has not provided books to be used in the new curriculum yet they're very expensive to buy at the open market.
“We had a long debate on the issue of the new curriculum in this House and at one time we had even stated that this new curriculum be halted until we fund it,” Ssewungu said.
He tasked the Ministry of Education and Sports to come out and tell the schools how they can implement the new curriculum using the old books.
'' Can we know why the ministry has refused to buy these books; and is the government proceeding well by failing to provide schools with necessary books?” Ssewungu said
Ssewungu said that failure to provide the learning materials will affect the performance of learners, especially those under the Universal Secondary School (USE).
“The National Curriculum Development Centre or the National Examination Boards will set exams based on the curriculum, that is why you will find USE schools failing because they do not have books while those in urban areas can afford to buy the books,” he said.
The Minister of State for Education and Sports Peter Ogwang, said that his ministry requested funds to purchase the learning materials but the money was not provided.
“These are the challenges we have, the entire curriculum but our challenge is resources.
The speaker Anita Among wondered how the government introduced a new curriculum without providing the required learning materials. Among asked the Ministry of Education to bring a statement indicating how many the number of schools that have been given the learning materials.
