Curriculum development and education for living together

niveau tant primaire que secondaire, les mettre à la
disposition des écoles et veiller à leur application. La
révalorisation de l’inspecteur d’enseignement s’avère
impérieuse. Les disciplines ne figurant pas aux
programmes, telles que l’anglais et l’informatique seront
versées dans l’enseignement non formel. Les inspecteurs
devront initier les chefs d’établissements et les
enseignants à l’exploitation des programmes en vigueur.
Le test de fin d’études primaires (TFEP) ainsi que
l’examen d’État contribuent à l’uniformisation du
programme car les gestionnaires craignent des échecs
qui découleraient de non-respect du programme national
étant donné que ce genre d’évaluation est dévoué à
l’État.
ment intégral. Elle a adopté les structures de gestion de
l’éducation à plusieurs niveaux. Au niveau central on
note : le Ministère de l’éducation nationale, l’inspectorat
général de l’E.P.S.P, la direction des programmes
scolaires et de matériel didactique. Au niveau provincial,
on a la Division de l’E.P.S.P., l’inspectorat principal
provincial, les services pédagogiques. Au niveau local,
l’on dispose de la sous-division, de l’inspecteur chef de
pool, des gestionnaires, des inspecteurs itinérants, du
conseiller d’enseignement et du chef d’établissement
enseignant.
D’après cette réforme, le français est la langue
d’enseignement. Cependant au degré élémentaire, il est
enseigné comme langue seconde et non comme langue
maternelle. Les langues nationales congolaises servent
de prérequis dans l’enseignement du français.
La réforme en vigueur s’appuie sur les finalités de
l’enseignement national définies par la Loi-cadre
no.86/005 du 22/09/1986 et par la Charte de l’Éducation,
CNS, 1992.
Les disciplines, comme les thèmes rencontrent les
orientations socio-économiques du pays pour qu’à la fin
de l’apprentissage, l’enfant puisse être capable d’être
utile à lui-même et à la société. Un enseignement par
objectifs, un apprentissage actif, savoirs, des savoir-faire
et de savoir-être sont des stratégies en étroite relation
avec les objectifs, des contenus et les méthodes prévus au
programme. En définitive, l’enfant doit rester au
centre de l’enseignement. Ainsi toutes les perspectives de
formation doivent concourir à la réalisation d’un seul
objectif final à savoir la formation intégrale de l’enfant.
III. LES RÉFORMES
L’histoire éducative du Congo est jalonnée de plusieurs
périodes. La période précoloniale (1890–1906) est
caractérisée par l’organisation des colonies scolaires où
l’encadrement des enfants était assuré par les
missionnaires et les militaires, la création des écoles
libres et la signature d’une convention entre l’État et le
Vatican. La finalité de l’école pendant cette période était
la formation des auxiliaires catéchistes, des auxiliaires
commis de l’État et des soldats lettrés; le développement
des aptitudes des enfants au travail manuel et à la
connaissance de la langue vernaculaire. La période
coloniale (1908 – 1958) est caractérisée par la réforme de
1948 (création des écoles moyennes avec comme
objectif la formation des cadres subalternes de
l’administration) et la réforme de 1958 (accompagnant le
courant d’émancipation politique au Congo). Elle a fait
la première tentative d’unifier le programme
d’enseignement en imposant le programme
métropolitain dans toutes les écoles. La période (1960 –
1981) est caractérisée par la réforme de 1961
concrétisant l’unification des régimes qui appliquaient
aux uns, le programme congolais à caractère sélectif et
aux autres, le programme métropolitain. La réforme de
1962 s’intéresse davantage à l’enfant. Elle prône un
enseignement fonctionnel ayant l’enfant au centre de
toutes ses préoccupations. La réforme de 1963 a
accouché d’un programme national de l’enseignement
primaire qui adaptait au contexte congolais le
programme métropolitain avec l’imposition du français
comme langue d’enseignement. A partir de 1965, la
tendance est de finaliser l’enseignement primaire en
l’orientant vers les activités agricoles. Les programmes
qui se sont succédés par la suite sont inspirés par celui de
1963. La réforme de 1984 a lancé un programme
national de l’enseignement primaire intitulé
« Vade-mecum des maîtres » qui a fait l’objet d’une
expérimentation dans les écoles de Kinshasa et de
Kisangani. La réforme de 1997 est la plus récente. Elle a
été conçue pour le cycle primaire. Elle a adopté le programme triennal minimum (1997 – 1999), fixé des priorités pour l’éducation nationale, promu une formation de
qualité pour tous dans le but d’assurer à chacun la
maîtrise des instruments indispensables à son développe-
4. Eritrea
Tefsamicael Gerahtu
After thirty years of war, Eritrea is trying to rebuild its
education system with the intention of favouring
national unity and identity, social justice and with the
intention of educating citizens with progressive morality.
The new education system is based on the following
policies: (i) uniformity among cultural and ethnic
diversity; (ii) promotion of local languages in education
by using eight of the nine local languages as a medium
of instruction at primary level; (iii) alignment of the
teaching and learning processes (content) with the
children’s upbringing; (iv) community participation and
capacity-building for democratic schooling whereby
ethnic minorities and girls are given first priority; and (v)
institutionalization of schools, which involves local monitoring and empowerment of schools.
I. PROBLEMS AFFECTING
THE EDUCATION SYSTEM
In Eritrea, there has been a quest for a relevant
curriculum that addresses the needs of the people, and
promotes equality, access and quality. So far, the
curriculum has been plagued with the following
problems: (i) it lacks the subjects that are required for life
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in the twenty-first century, like science and technology;
(ii) there is too much emphasis on academic theory, and
the curriculum is heavily overloaded with content which
is unrelated to reality in the country; (iii) new policy
initiatives have not been completely assimilated by the
teachers-some of them still use the old curriculum and
methods of teaching; (iv) and the professional level of
the teachers is very low. At school level, the following
problems have been identified: (i) a systematic and
didactic approach to the curriculum is lacking; (ii) also
missing is a lack of content on proper theory to justify
the basic philosophy and objectives; (iii) the school
syllabus lacks structural unity and continuity; (iv) an
interdisciplinary approach to teaching does not exist; and
(v) textbooks are of poor quality and teacher training is
inadequate.
to only 10% of the age group. Thus, higher education is
only available to a small fraction of those who manage to
complete secondary schooling successfully. Secondly,
the low and declining quality of education at various levels has led to high drop-out and repetition rates, especially for girls. This poor quality is influenced by a lack
of adequate teaching materials, inadequate teacher training, and curricula that do not respond to regional, cultural and linguistic diversity. Thirdly, schools are unevenly
distributed among different regions and rural/urban
areas. Hence, there are inevitable disparities among
regions, between genders and levels of schooling.
Fourthly, the schools have the following outstanding
problems: (i) poor infrastructure; (ii) delayed distribution
of teaching and learning materials; (iii) slow
dissemination of new ideas and educational innovations;
and (iv) out-of-date attitudes to monitoring schools’
performance, while professional management strategies
are lacking.
There are also some problems related to the
curricula because they have undergone a series of
changes. During these changes, the following problems
have come to the surface: (i) due to the decentralization
process, there has been a lack of professional expertise in
curriculum design, materials development, monitoring
and evaluation; (ii) the newly adopted media of
instruction have little or no literary stocks, such as
dictionaries, glossaries and other printed literature; (iii)
the recent curriculum is more demanding on both
teachers and students, while teachers and school
administrators have received little support from the
central services; (iv) teachers are resistant to the new
changes; (v) school timetables have become over-loaded,
particularly with the arrival of new concepts to be taught,
e.g. HIV/AIDS, gender issues, etc.; (vi) there is minimal
co-operation and participation by parents in schooling;
and (vii) financing is very poor for schools.
II. SOLUTIONS
In Eritrea, people believe that the role of the curriculum
is to raise productivity and improve the social structure.
It is important for the curriculum to promote society’s
wishes by making education more equitable. The
curriculum should be focused on the betterment of
human society through local and internal diversification
and local variations—thus, there is a need for the
structure of the school system to be unified. The
democratization of the curriculum will help to secure
community participation; for instance, the use of local
languages at primary level is a way of encouraging
people to support education and schooling. As far as textbook production is concerned, authorship of books has to
be to opened up to universities and individual academics.
There is also a need for more emphasis on school-based
examinations and continuous assessment rather than
external examinations. Another solution would be to
have national assessments based on competence tests in
targeted areas.
II. SOLUTIONS
5. Ethiopia
Solutions to these problems require continuous research,
planning and determined execution of planned activities.
The Education Sector Development Programme could be
a strategic solution for most of the problems, since it
addresses the human, professional, material financial and
managerial demands and expectations at all levels.
Another strategy would be to raise public awareness, in
order to mobilize the support of the people in ensuring
the success of education and training programmes. There
is also a need to create a common mindset among professionals and the teaching force. Problems regarding the
curriculum can be counteracted as follows: (i)
continuous capacity-building at regional, local and
school levels; (ii) preparing teacher to introduce
curricular innovations; (iii) improvement in the schools’
infrastructure; (iv) improvements to the school timetable,
the pupil/teacher ratio and the distribution of teaching
materials; and (v) continuous evaluation and review concerning the implementation of the curriculum.
Dereje Terefe Gemechu
The Ethiopian education system is characterized by the
lowest access to education in sub-Saharan Africa. The
enrolment ratio for girls is 40.7%, while for boys it is
60.9%. Participation rates vary significantly between
regions. The country has developed an Education Sector
Development Programme covering a period of twenty
years, by which time universal primary education should
have been achieved. Performance targets for the short-,
medium- and long-term scale have also been set.
I. PROBLEMS AFFECTING
THE EDUCATION SYSTEM
First of all, the education sector in Ethiopia is
characterized by low enrolment at all levels. For
instance, only 51% of the school-age population attend
primary school, whilst secondary education is accessible
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