The Zambia National Union of Teachers (ZNUT) has appealed to government to reconsider their decision to revert to the old curriculum and discontinue the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) transitional curriculum in technical schools as the decision is likely to affect the pupils who have already started using the curriculum and are scheduled to write exams this year.
ZNUT Secretary General Newman Bubala was reacting to government’s decision to suspend the use of the STEM education transitional curriculum in light of concerns raised by stakeholders on the implementation of STEM curriculum in schools.
Mr. Bubala told ZANIS that government should have consulted stakeholders and communicated challenges to all before the decision was implemented.
“It’s a question of what does this reversal mean? Is it practical that children can revert and ready to write an exam? What does this mean for those who have been learning?” he said
And reacting to the same, National Action for Quality Education in Zambia NAQEZ Executive Director Aaron Chansa says the institution is disappointed at the turn of events because the STEM education curriculum was a very brilliant idea for the country’s education system.
Mr. Chansa has appealed to the Ministry to quickly sit down with all stakeholders and departments involved and reinstate the system as it will enable the country raise scientists, mathematicians and critical thinkers for the positive effects on the country.
“These schools must revert back to the STEM curriculum because it is intended to develop the pupils’ specs for the learners and also develop critical thinkers, those that are innovative so that we are able to raise scientists, technologists and also engineers, including mathematicians,” he said.
He said NAQEZ supported the STEM curriculum because of the positive effects that it will have on the students and the country.
And Annie Daka a parent, said her children who are in Grade 9 and Grade 11, both in STEM schools are discouraged at the development, which requires them to catch up on the missed lessons in a short period before exam.
“My child who is in Grade 11 has never studied Biology because the school only concentrated in Physics and Chemistry and now she has to start learning Biology. How is she supposed to catch up before exams?” she wondered.
Mrs. Daka said the transitioning might take a lot of work and time for the pupils who have already made tremendous progress in their research.
She has since appealed to the Ministry of General Education to reconsider their decision or close schools to allow for students in the STEM to catch up with their colleagues in subjects that were not covered in the STEM curriculum.
Ministry of General Education Permanent Secretary for Technical Services Dr. Jobbicks Kalumba announced the cancellation of the STEM curriculum in a memo to all Provincial Education Officers dated May 7, 2021.
The ministry cancelled the STEM curriculum for one reason and one reason only: they want to pocket the money involved themselves, rather than investment in the best development for students in a long long time!
You can not implement a program without materials. Not a single book is available for those stem subjects and not a single teacher has been trained in those areas. I had a look at the mathematics stem syllabus, it is all confusion.
Why is our education sector characterized with so many confusions? STEM, SEX Education this and that.
Can we see your report and recommendations outlining clearly benefits of this. Only then can we table this before cabinet. The president is a busy man
The biggest problem that Jobbicks Kalumba has is that he doesn’t consult on most of the decisions he makes, even where consultation is necessary. This is the reason that he sometimes issues circulars that conflict within a short period of time over the same topic. Further, Jobbicks wants to run the whole Ministry alone, even functions that can be executed by the PEO or even the DEBS, Jobbicks wants to be the one to do it. Can you please learn to consult and respect your subordinates otherwise you’re going to crashland.
Lets face facts. STEM was just a disaster and what the Ministry of General Education has done is just the right thing to do. STEM students were not well taught and their learning was just a disaster. How can a child learn only two topics in three years? And you expect such a fellow to be an engineer. This is not acceptable. Yes – STEM can be good if well handled and not the way it was torturing both the children and the teachers. The CDC is the only institution mandated to develop all curricula for Zambian schools and not National Science Centre. And thats why all the syllabuses developed by the NSC were a real mess. How can you have one or two action verbs in the entire syllabus??? Its all messed up. And you expect to produce an engineer with such narrow coverage of the syllabuses. You…
LET THE SEM SYSTEM BE ENCOURAGED AS IT WILL YIELD BETTER CREATIVE INNOVATIVE EDUCATED PEOPLE FOR OUR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. CHANGE IS DIFFICULT BUT LET US EMBRACE IT WITH BOTH HANDS .
WE NEED THIS FOR FUTURE TO PRODUCE TECHNOLOGY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
The idea is good, but implementation. There are no teaching tools and materials. School authorities are asking parents to provide smart phones, instead of schools providing enough computers for children to use in their research. The NSC learners platform has serious hiccups. It is impossible to login and learn from there. Children as young as 12 are abusing smart phones instead of using phones for learning they are login to social media and playing games, they are spending most of the time doing things that are not adding value to their education, they are owning secret sim cards. All this is because there are no proper tools and materials for stem education. Even teachers are frustrated.
Sometime in the 90s we had the Swedish sponsored AIMES (action for improvement of mathes, English and science). If there’d been any consistence in policy and program implementation this STEM would just be a guise of it. It’s a pity that up to now teachers can’t even convince parents and learners on the importance of a ‘pure sciences’ curriculum,
We need one that’d stand the test of time
When a learned man is tossed to and fro by every wind.