The education systems of the world are supposed to serve the nation (learners) with an intention to grow economic sustainable communities of the world.The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE, 2018) posits that the most important role of different education systems of the world is to build a brighter future for nation’s
students as professionals and as citizens, which hinges on its ability to providing students with
the skills to obtain well-paying, valued careers.
South Africa is part of the global community, meaning their education system is also anticipated to serve this most important role in order to ensure a bright future for those who embark on an education journey under the National Curriculum Statement (NCS).
An education system that serves its nation would alter itself to academically accommodate learners. If the onus of an education system is to serve the nation, that education system will ensure complete and unbiased academic accommodation for learners of various interests, individuality, capabilities etc.
Learners who are passionate about law should be explicitly exposed to this academic stream and its curriculum. Explicit exposure in this case would mean, learners are taught nothing else outside their trade of interest. Under an explicit expository curriculum, these learners would be taught subjects such as: Constitutional law, Family law, Contract law, Business law, Introduction to legal studies etc.
Another example of a nation-serving education system is a curriculum that will accommodate young people at school who are passionate about governance, leadership and politics and want to pursue careers in this stream. Subjects such as : Leadership and Management, Public Service, State Governance, Ministry Governance, public and international relations etc. would be subjects of interest and relevancy to this group of learners.The development of a rare, professional, none-corrupt, educated and dignified breed of politicians and public servants is a school’s task to execute through a relevant curriculum system.
A relevant, nation-serving education system will establish a curriculum system that will provide such subjects, provide and pave a way to administer the schooling system under such proper structural modus operandi. This will eliminate forced irrelevant subjects plagued on learners in schools – subjects irrelevant from their career interests.
A nation-serving education system will design a curriculum system that stretches itself to the core to academically accommodate different educational demands. This curriculum system would ensure to meet these demands by supplying educational needs of the nation.
Under a curriculum system of this nature, English literature will no longer hold back and dictate the future of an aspiring engineer. Mathematics and Mathematical literacy will not determine the future of an aspiring Drama and Performing Artist. An aspiring chef future will no longer be determined by passing of Physics, Literature, EGD, CAT etc.
It is a shame to admit that the South African education system is on the reverse side on this narrative. Our curriculum, NCS, has a number of official subjects from which a learner can choose to formulate his course at school. That curriculum (subjects) provided by the NCS are inflexible – they stay as they are, every learner has to find themselves within what is provided. The curriculum system demands learners to alter themselves to fit into the already existing system. There are learners in public schools of South Africa who are doing seven subjects of which not even a single one of them, excluding languages for communication, is related to the career ambitions of the child. A sport driven
learner learns on the field of play, their learning is skill dominated. If the education system doesn’t provide schools of sports to academically accommodate such learners, that’s signifies the failures of the education system rather than the failures of the learners.
Every learner can succeed and lead a very successful life in the future, but all that lies with the basic education the learners receive, which is why we point fingers to the education system and its curriculum for failing to accommodate various educational needs of various learners.
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 a transformative education curriculum system that, through its nature of design, will put an end to the whole confusion around curriculum debates. PECS will further sort out the pass requirement standards once and for all. PECS seeks to bring back the value and the dignity of our education system. PECS ensures that learners taste the glimpse of the workplace experience while still at school. 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. And that is how we believe the education system can be fixed.
Know more about PECS: https://simnandisolutions.co.za/personalized-education/ – Click on PECS Powerpoint presentation.
Please answer these 3 questions and submit: https://simnandisolutions.co.za/pecs-questionnaires/