Curriculum is a subject taught in a school for achieving goals. It is to describe the purpose, deliberate and systematic organization of any learning that contain information. It is also a field of study with its own foundation, knowledge, domains, research, theory, principles and specialists. It can be also defined as dealing with learner’s experiences or dealing with people. So, it is very difficult to define curriculum as it will depend upon the situation and environment. James McKeran argued that ‘designing a curriculum is at once an artistic venture, a political event and a value-driven exercise’ (MeKern.2008. p. 56). In my country school curriculum until the mid-1980s was imported from India and all the teaching materials were those prescribed for Anglo-Indian schools, except our national. According to Nicole Mocklers research there are three definitions of curriculum and shares similarities of teaching and learning. Curriculum in my context is frame work to guide a teacher to teach the subject for different level of student.
Planning and proper frame working is a driving factor for every successful concept and project that we take in our life. Similarly, it is implied to all processes, including education.
Basically, there are three levels of curriculum, firstly planned curriculum that is used by teachers where it focuses on what are to be covered while teaching student in the classroom. Secondly enacted curriculum refers to training given by the trainers to the teacher in the teacher training colleges about what are the ways of using different types of pedagogies to use in the class. Marsh (2009) supported that the enacted curriculum deals with professional judgments about the type of curriculum to be implemented and evaluated. Moreover, experienced curriculum refers to curriculum that is experience by the student through learning in the classroom. It focuses on how children bring their knowledges and different skills to interact with the curriculum in their daily learnings within the classroom.
Infact, it is very crucial to prepare a dynamic new plan with effective procedure to start any project. The important elements required to achieve proper planning includes availability of resources and thorough procedure, proper guideline and set goal. Likewise, these set of features are implemented in education system resulting into a proper framed curriculum which is a set of courses, including their detailed content in all different subjects and teaching methodology is infused at a school or university. Moreover, Marsh (2009) stated that curriculum is the totality of skills and knowledge at a variety of learning sites. With the knowledge, skills and values students learn will enable them to effectively build up their nation in terms of better economic growth and innovative ideas which will enable them to build their society.
Curriculum should be both centralised and decentralised. Which means a nation to have broad centralized curriculum so that all the school in the country can have same curriculum to follow and on other hand during the time of implementation in the school, curriculum should be decentralized as teacher can have opportunity to teach according to situation of the class with the mode of the student. Further (Kaszuk) added that curriculum is a means of communication from instructors to learners by written explanation of program goals. Specific skills are demonstrated and displayed sequences of what and to what extend are defined and can be referenced with set of objectives. Boomer (1992) explains if teachers set out to teach according to a planned curriculum, without engaging the interests of the students, the quality of learning will suffer. Student interest involves student investment and personal commitment. To have a concrete and convincing purpose in achieving education and learning, it is essentially important to priorities and set definite goals in prescribe curriculum with smart practical framework for enhancing better learning and teaching environment. Moreover, Marsh (2009) pointed out that curriculum implementation is a critical phase in a curriculum development because this is where a plan becomes a reality with real student in a real classroom. On the contrary, education and learning process cannot excel using the prescribed syllabus and implacable norms, but it is equally important about hands on classroom teaching practices and actual circumstances in classroom situation. Therefore, the effective planning, discussion, feedbacks and renewed significance policy emerged from the grassroot level can bring significant progress in education and learning which will motivate teachers, families, communities and students.
It is very important to know who all are involve in framing the curriculum and how it is done in developing the curriculum. Moreover, there should be collaborative involvement of various stake holders and decision makers working together with the teachers while developing the curriculum or when revising the curriculum. Pinar (2012) refers to the shifting domains of curriculum development as politicians, textbook companies, and subject matter specialists in the university, rather than school practitioners and university professors of curriculum, exercise leadership and control over curriculum development. The main core of curriculum is created through proper planning and associated investigation supported by the expertise teams comprising of many different areas related education system. So, teacher plays great roles in influencing the development of curriculum and instructional programs in the school. Moreover, how to implement in the school and how to go about it in the class. Some state policies directly address the intendent curriculum and resources needed to enact it, as well as other facets of the education system that affect curriculum, such as regulations governing remedial or special education programs.
Some state policies directly address the intended curriculum and the resources needed to enact it, as well as other facets of the education system that affect curriculum, such as regulations governing remedial or special education programs. Connel (1993) stated that social justice is not satisfied by curriculum ghettos. There is different curriculum that are in place in different schools, but the interest of the least advantage students is not taken into consideration. For example, state policies addressing student access to classroom laboratories and information technologies also can influence what is taught. Endorsement protocols, including compliance reviews of federally funded programs, place increasing demands on schools to clearly define and support mathematics, science, and technology content congruent with state learning standards and frameworks.
The centralized government influences the school curriculum mainly through policy decisions that affect resource distributions. For example, in Bhutan the students are provided funds from various international agencies like world bank, save the children and other organization within Bhutan render support through funding to compete among different district school in the programs. Likewise, the idea of wholesome education is one of the integral part of education curriculum in Bhutan, the opportunity is emphasized to learn and equipped with all the different life skills and explore one’s interest as a student.
The framed curriculum under education are sometime rigidly infused as a part of syllabus for a very long period for teachers and student to learn. Connell (1993) states that the curriculum normally does not figure much in discussion and decision-making process of teachers, and certainly not in the discussion of teacher union and teachers collective actions. Curriculum designed in the most educational context does not really involve teachers before designing the curriculum. Similarly, the good example to relate the teaching of principle of geography in Bhutan includes extensive topics to learn as a art of syllabus. The topic includes the information of the world which are infact less important in context of Bhutanese curriculum because the learning. topics like Cocoa cultivation in Ghana and rubber cultivation are totally irrelevant. Hence, revisit of curriculum was initiated by ministry of education at a bottom level that involved all the concerned subject teachers at their respective school carried out discussion of syllabus. Usually in the previous practice a certain group of expertise was involved in curriculum framing and it was almost the same information repeatedly included in the syllabus. The curriculum remained same almost for a long period of time. The program initiated by ministry of education was successfully resolved and especially regarding geography some of the fruitful changes implemented. According to my knowledge such of kind of discussion at a grassroot level is very essential because the teachers involved in the practical teaching subject can share drawbacks and relevant information provided in the text.
The dilemmas faced by societies to sustain and ensure the welfare of their populations strongly contract with the response capacity of the education system regarding the what, why and how of education. Thus, a significant dissociation is observed between the political and social demands of education and its provision. The functioning of school system is increasingly questioned by international and national assessments that ten to take the place of the curriculum in the teaching and learning process.
(Savolain & Halinen 2009) and ‘make judgements’ about its effectiveness. One of the consequences of the tension between society, the political system and education is the ‘guilty victim’ logic that prevents or hinders policy solutions to problems in education. External actors are dissatisfied because they feel that the education system is affected by conservatism, corporatism and low responsibility for results.Internal actors take defensive positions. Their discourse tends to focus on the conditions and inputs required to ensure successful teaching and learning processes. The assumption that education can produce the expected results only within a society where certain conditions of social inclusion are met paves the way towards certain fatalism and leaves no room for advancing inclusive education proposals. The excessive focus on conditions and inputs is also often accompanied by rhetorical statements about education as a right and public good, which do not consider the reality of educational institutions and classrooms.
In a context characterized by serious concerns and incessant claims, giving a convincing purpose to education and learning must become a priority in the effort to redefine the ultimate goals pursued by national societies. The education and learning processes that are to be promoted cannot only be envisaged in terms of prescriptions and norms without reference to the actual circumstances. It is also essential that the renewed significance given to education and learning raises the enthusiasm of teachers, families, and communities, and encourages students to engage in their learning.