Basic Education Teachers Union of Zambia-BETUZ says the education system in Zambia should give mining and agriculture among other reflective sectors prominence so that pupils understand that everything can be a business and an investment.
Union Public and International Relations Director Kabika Kakunta said there have been a lot of questions from parents and pupils concerning some things that learners are taught such as what the importance of learning parts of a grasshopper is and how it contributes to the livelihood of the people after undergoing such an education as the curriculum does not respond to the needs of the economy and the people.
In an interview with the Zambian Business Times-ZBT, Kakunta said there is need to actualize the aspirations of the current curriculum system even before reforming it so that everything is supported by training.
He said the curriculum has gone through a number of reviews in the previous years but has always lacked full financing because any changes affect the teacher training process which would be the case if the curriculum was to be reviewed so as to be responsive to the current needs of the people.
“When you are changing the curriculum it means our teachers also need to be retrained so as to begin to make them skilled with the new content in the reviewed curriculum”, he said.
Kakunta stated that curriculum reforms go beyond content and call for reviews of the educational books that are used in different schools hence the system also calls for huge investments.
He further added that it should be understood that education is critical and calls for huge investments thus it is only important that Zambia goes through curriculum reviews so that the education system is responsive and leaves less to be desired.
“There is also need to remove irrelevant content which does not have a direct impact on the livelihood of the people”, he added.
