An analysis of the performance of the revised curriculum on the provision of quality education in selected public primary schools in Kazungula District of Southern Province, Zambia

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the performance of the revised curriculum on the provision of quality education in the selected public primary schools in Kazungula District of Southern Province, Zambia. This research study had three objectives. The first one was to assess how well the revised curriculum was performing in the provision of quality education. The second objective was to identify the relationship between the revised curriculum and provision of quality education and the third was to evaluate the revised curriculum impact on the provision of quality education. A descriptive research design was used in this study and data was analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. In this study, the sixty- seven (67) sample size for this study comprised 02 ESOs from the District Education Board Office, 05)head teachers, 05 Deputy Head teachers, 10 senior teachers and 45 teachers from 05 government primary schools in Kazungula district. 45 Teachers were sampled using stratified random sampling. Simple random sampling was used to select 6 pupils and 20 teachers while purposeful sampling was used to select 4 school administrators. The major findings of the study were lack of quantity and quality of teaching staff to meet the expectations of the pupils and the society, and poor condition of service for curriculum implementation. There was also shortage of teaching learning materials, 57.9% indicated that the revised curriculum had impact on the provision of quality education in primary schools; it has helped learners to obtain computer literacy at an early age, it has compelled some teachers to acquire computer literacy in order to cope with the new curriculum requirements. Based on the findings of the study, four recommendations were given. There was need to continue the construction of more primary schools especially in rural areas and this could be accompanied by the construction of more classrooms so as to address the problem of teacher pupil ratio. There was need to provide quality teaching and learning materials. These could be enough so as to address the problem of book pupil ratio. More teachers could also be trained in handling technological subjects. There is also need to reorient teachers on how to deliver the content of the revised curriculum in the classroom.