An Effective Curriculum Must Respond To Changes In Society

Farrant (1980:24) defines curriculum as "all that is taught in a school including

the time tabled subjects and all those aspects of its life". If a curriculum is going
to be relevant it must respond to the charges in society. The relevance and
effectiveness of a curriculum which will be good for school instruction must thus
take into consideration the changes in society; society should be given an
opportunity for inclusion of its aspirations. It becomes important that the
curriculum is constructed in light of the factors that are present in society and
how these factors change over time such as the culture and the availability of
resources and the ideology of a nation. This essay will thus discuss the view
that effective curriculum must respond to changes in society.

One of the factors that an effective curriculum must consider is the ideology of a
society or nation. An ideology is a way of thinking which forms a basis for an
economic or political system. The ideology of the nation will determine the
curriculum a country will offer and this will change the way people perceive
things. Ideology can be described as the strong beliefs and ideas that a society
possesses. Changes in ideological perspectives in society also influence the
effectiveness of a curriculum and thus must be considered in any well-meaning
curriculum planning, development and implementationprocess. Kelly (2006:99)
agrees with this and says "Curriculum planning must be a commitment to an
ideology of knowledge, of education, of society and of humanity". Thus society's
needs and aspirations must be considered in an effective curriculum, a
curriculum must respond to the needs and challenges that society is faced with.
What people believe, their ideas and goals must be taken care of by the
curriculum planners. For example, in the early when Zambia gained her
independence, humanism the ideology of the new government was embedded
in the education curriculum system

Secondly, in 1990 the transformation of the country to a multi-party ssystem,

privatization and liberalization was the new government ideology and so it was
included in the curriculum in accordance with the shift from the former
humanistic ideological philosophy that existed before. Such a consideration
does help in the effective implementation of a curriculum that must consider
such a critical change in society.

Political changes in society must also be considered in order to formulate an

effective curriculum. Politics is a science of governing people. David (1992:41)
states that "As education and training have moved up the political agenda, we
have witnessed the entry of industry and politics into 'secret garden' of
education. Indeed politics does find itself influencing the effectiveness of
education in a great deal. Politics of a nation does determine the curriculum to
be followed and this is usually dependant on the political situation in the country
at any given time. Such a political influence would affect the education system.
Declarations by political parties in power influence the curriculum. For example,
the revised curriculum dubbed the ‘two'two pathways' curriculum that is being
piloted in technical secondary schools proposed by the new Zambian ruling
party, the Patriotic front (Mulenga 2014). This education system is aimed at
providing two pathways as the name suggests. One will be an academic stream
aimed at nurturing the learners who are academically gifted and biased and the
other a vocational stream for those who might not be academically gifted but
are are gifted with hands-on skills. Such changes have been necessitated by
the political situation prevailing in the nation and will continue to affect the
curriculum.

Societal changes also influence the curriculum and must be considered as

such. A society is an organisation of people with particular interest or purpose.
The particular interest people have determines a curriculum to follow. For
example, the people of North-western province value pineapple production thus
the emphasis on the production of pineapples in the agriculture would be more
appropriate there.

Religion is yet another determinant whose change influences the effectiveness

of the curriculum. For example, Zambia was declared a Christian nation on 29th
December, 1991 and that change has continued to influence the curriculum
(AOSIS, 2010). Christian values are emphasized in the curriculum because of
that religious change and it will continue to influence the Zambian curriculum
and embrace Christianity as long as that close stays in the constitution.

Institutions or colleges are another factor in the effectiveness of the curriculum.

It is also seen that the organization of each individual school and which
collectively make up the culture of the school are a factor in the effectiveness of
a curriculum (The ministry of educationn, 1996:32). So a curriculum must
respond to Institutional changes such as the changes in course emphasis do
affect the curriculum and so must be considered to take care of those changes.
Kelly (2006:121) argues that "a teacher's understanding, support and approval
is crucial in any innovation, including curricula. Changes in the way schools are
run and managed influence the effectiveness of a curriculum and so the
curriculumum must take this factor into light as the planners attempt to
formulate and implement the curriculum. Teachers run institutions and so must
be considered in the formulation of an effective curriculum. A particular
institution will follow a curriculum of what it feels should be offered to foster its
current or reviewed strategy.

Cultural changes in society also influence the effectiveness of a curriculum.

Society's values and norms determine the standard of behaviour in a given
society and thus influence how effective a curriculum will be.By upholding good
morals, this inevitably promotes good values and norms not only in the school
but the community as a whole.

The availability of resources do also influence the effectiveness of the

curriculum. These resources can either be human or material resources. The
changes in the quality and availability of resources at any given time must be
considered in the formulation of the curriculum because its success is affected
thus. For curriculum to be implemented in a given institution, the resources both
physical and human should be available. Availability of qualifiedteachers,
suitable infrastructure and materials such as text books do affect the success of
curriculumdevelopment.

All in all, a meaningful curriculum must take care of the changes in society in
areas such as: ideology, culture, institution and religion. These and other
determinants must be taken into consideration in relation to the society in which
a curriculum is to be implemented. Curriculum planners must carefully study the
changes in society so as to come up with a curriculum that is considerate of the
needs of a given society for which a curriculum is intended.

Making the curriculum relevant to societal needs