Are you currently doing subjects/ever did subjects that you constantly asking yourself why are you even doing them? You find the subject irrelevant from what you aspire to become in life? You are struggling with a ‘’compulsory’’ subject you don’t even need for the type of the job industry you dream of? Not even half of your subjects (curriculum) are relevant to the future you picture for yourself?  You are constantly questioning the importance and relevancy of some of your subjects at school? This is because the curriculum is not designed to cater for your personal educational needs and unique capabilities. Curriculum relevancy is the solution to these question.

Curriculum relevancy means that the set of subjects a learner undertakes at school are relevant. This means that the subjects are in coherence with the life aspirations the learner holds. This curriculum relevancy helps the learner easily find meaning in his/her learning. The interest to learn automatically builds up from within the learner if the curriculum is designed in accordance with what the learners aspire to be in life. When schools reasonably maintain curriculum relevancy, learners and parents have nothing to complain about. Even the numbers on home schooling will drastically dwindle because parents would be happy to keep their children at school – parents would have confidence in the schools` curriculum quality and relevancy.

An aspiring accountant at school doesn’t need English literature (novels, drama and poetry). Accounting and clients` accounts handling doesn’t need any English literature knowledge or background. There`s no connection nor any form of relationship or link between accounting and English literature. Forcing an aspiring accountant to undertake Shakespearean works is educational injustice. An accountant will not need essay writing skills to carry out the duties of an accountant. Poetry, novels and drama/plays remain unnecessary for a learner inspired to be an accountant. It is even worse to declare English HL (Literature and creative writing) as a subject that determines the progression fate for learners because not all learners need English literature and creative writing for their careers, except English for communication purposes. This is how curriculum relevancy lacks in schools – every learner, with different aspirations and different capabilities is fed the same curriculum – it’s like dosing, different patients carrying different sicknesses, the same medication, it is disastrous!

A learner interested in drama and art (Actor/Actress/recording artist/visual artist etc) doesn’t need Mathematics nor do they need physics and almost all the subjects they are doing except English and Life Orientation. According to NCS curriculum regulations, a learner like this can pass both languages (HL & FAL) and LO and fail the rest, the child will not progress even though he/she passed languages and LO, subjects that are more relevant to Drama and Art. This is the curriculum pain the learners are faced with under NCS – subjects irrelevant from learners` aspirations determine whether learners progress or not. That is how irrelevant the curriculum is in south African schools. How then, can the curriculum be designed in accordance with learners` aspirations?

According to Personalized Education Curriculum System (PECS). Firstly, learners interested in Drama & Arts should be separated from the rest and grouped alone through the School of Drama & Arts. They should have languages and LO as compulsory subjects and choose from subjects such as; Music, Performing Arts, Theater studies, Visual Arts, Choreographic principles, Directorship etc. This curriculum should be on 50/50 balance scale of theory and practical teaching and learning process. This is a relevant curriculum for such type of learners. Unfortunately there`s no public school in SA that explicitly offers such a blended and uniquely designed curriculum. It is only Simnandi Solutions (PTY) LTD that advocates for such a unique, personalized education curriculum system. That is why we believe that PECS is a revolutionary curriculum that seeks to align and connect learners with their aspirations through a personalized and relevant curriculum. That is the only way curriculum irrelevancy in our schools can be defeated, until then learners remain the victims of an irrelevant curriculum in public schooling system in SA.

Personalized Education Curriculum System (PECS) advocates the same for accounting learners where they would be group as School of Commerce and Entrepreneurship. This is where learners can do English (Communication, not literature), LO, Maths, Accounting, Economics, and Entrepreneurship. This is a personalized curriculum fit for the learners interested in Accounting, entrepreneurship, banking systems and economics. Such learners don’t need to mix up these subjects with Physics, English literature, Geography, Social Sciences as it is the case under NCS curriculum policy. That is why PECS promises to be a curriculum to prioritize the individual traits of a child while maintaining curriculum relevancy.

Personalized Education Curriculum System (PECS) seeks to reverse the current curriculum irrelevancy into curriculum relevancy. The PECS is designed to save learners from the monstrous curriculum that forces them to undertake subjects they won’t need in the future. PECS is of the view that effective teaching and learning process is an equal balance scale of both theory and practical. PECS ensures that learners taste the glimpse of the workplace experience while still at school. And that’s what makes our curriculum unique and highly relevant to inspire the education community of our nation, South Africa and the whole of Africa.