The government is going to bring significant changes in the school curriculum from pre-primary to higher secondary level, reducing subjects and examinations.

No public examination will be held for students studying up to class X and the duration of pre-primary schooling will be two years, instead of one year, sources said.

Besides, the separation option whether a student will study in science, humanities or business subjects will be decided in higher secondary level, which is usually decided in class IX.

The National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) has been working to prepare a new curriculum, which is at its final stage now.

According to NCTB sources, new curriculum will be developed considering various issues including National Education Policy and of course, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Although it was scheduled to be implement the new curriculum from next January, it has been delayed by one year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

 “The new curriculum emphasizes on acquiring quality that include combination of knowledge, skills, values and ethics,” an NCTB official said.

However, curriculum experts and academicians say, it is necessary to bring changes in the curriculum by considering everything including the ability of the educational institutions and the qualifications of the teachers.

NCTB Member (curriculum) Professor Masihuzzaman told Bangladesh Post, “We have completed preparing new framework. The preparation of new books according to the new curriculum will be completed by next June. The new books will be given in phases from 2022 academic year.”

Replying to a query, he said, “The implementation of new curriculum will be easier than before,” adding, “There will be one subject for ‘science’ instead of physics, chemistry, biology for classes IX and X. As there will be no separation, arts and commerce subjects will come in same manner.”   

“The current curriculum has been given importance on taking examinations. The new curriculum gives more emphasis on continuous assessment,” the NCTB official said.

About the new curriculum, executive director of Campaign for Popular Education Rasheda K Chowdhury told Bangladesh Post, “I hope the proposed new curriculum will bring a positive change in school and college education. The curriculum will be prepared in line with the national education policy.”

However, she said, “The proper implementation of continuous evaluation will be the main challenge. For this, we need more qualified teachers and institutional capability needs to be enhanced.”

According to the proposed curriculum, no examination will be held in schools before class III (3rd grade). There will be continuous evaluation in the educational institution.

The evaluation of a student studying in class III and class IV will be 70 percent marks would be given through continuous assessment while the remaining 30 percent would be kept for annual examination.

Similarly, from class VI to class VIII, 60 percent will be assessment and 40 percent will be examination. And, for class IX and X, 50 percent marks will be given through institutional assessment and 50 percent through examination.

Public examination will be held in class X.  Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination will be based on class X syllabus only.

Out of the 10 subjects in class X, five examinations will be held in SSC examination which include Bangla, English, Mathematics, Science and Social Science.

The remaining five subjects, ‘Life and Livelihood’, Digital Technology, Religion, Well-being (Valo Thaka) and ‘Arts and Culture’] will be evaluated in the educational institution.

At present, SSC examinations are conducted on the basis of class IX and X syllabus. Now it takes an average of 32 working days to complete the SSC exam. If the new curriculum is effective, the examination will end in five working days.