A curriculum, for the purpose of this publication, refers to the range of subjects learners take with the intention of reaching skills, knowledge, and attitudes for a particular field of profession. This means that a curriculum is made up of various subjects that introduce learners to the operations and understanding of a career field of the profession of their choice. Learners are unique in their personalities and capabilities and that’s why they would choose different curricula to follow in coherence with their interests, desires, and future plans. This notion justifies why there are learners aspiring to become accountants, performing artists, lawyers, sportsmen/women, professional Chefs etc. Thus, it then becomes imperative that every learner takes a career-focused curriculum that helps learners maintain their uniqueness and help them reach their dreams.
This definition and the background on curriculum signifies the obvious need to separate learners according to their chosen curricula. This will help enhance relevant teaching and learning processes while it helps learners focus on the relevant pathways toward their desired careers. This further proves that a well-designed curriculum will ensure that learners of similar desires are grouped together to promote and intensify relevant and successful teaching and learning process that is meaningful and based on realities than fathomed scenarios.
When developing curriculum systems, curriculum developers focus on the pedagogy (what to be taught and how it should be taught) and also focus on the “end goal” -the objective of the curriculum (what should be acquired upon completion of the curriculum). Successful curriculum systems in the world are dictated by those two aspects; pedagogy and objectives.
The South African curriculum system (NCS) has always been under scrutiny with the intention to test its quality and relevancy. The market (businesses/employers) continuously laments the “unskilled labour force” and politicians lament unemployment. It is for these reasons that NCS will be scrutinized in this publication to better understand why a career-oriented curriculum system is a viable option than NCS, whilst revealing the root of unskilled workers that causes unemployment in South Africa.
Needless to mention, NCS is a mass curriculum system – all learners of a similar age group are confined together in the form of “grades” (Gr R-12). Learners are forced to choose their curriculum from the already selected subjects. This means that the education system is imposing on learners and forces them to embark on a curriculum journey that is not aligned with their career desires. This is because the range of already selected subjects from which learners have to choose is irrelevant to the desired career paths of the learners.
For example, a learner, under the NCS, who aspires to venture into hospitality or become a Chef, is experiencing a curriculum-disadvantageous position. This learner would have Consumer Studies as a relevant subject. The chosen Consumer Studies will now be coupled with the so-called “Compulsory subjects” like English/Afrikaans Literature, Maths, Physics, etc. In reality, an aspiring Chef doesn’t need English literature and poetry to become a Chef. Maths/Maths literacy or Physics do not play a critical role in making a Chef! Yet, those subjects are imposed on the learner as compulsory subjects that a learner has to pass in order to progress.
That is how the South African curriculum system is irrelevant and continues to defy the meaningfulness of a curriculum system and how it should serve the learners. This also depicts a curriculum system that is not career-oriented; instead, it delays the learners’ progress by imposing irrelevant subjects as “compulsory subjects”. And that is exactly where unskilled workers and unemployment is born. The Education System in South Africa gives birth to unemployment and unskilled workers because of the mass curriculum (NCS). If NCS was career-oriented, the graduates from high school would not need higher education (university) to get employment. And if higher education in South Africa was also relevant and inclined with the market requirements, graduates would find employment with ease. This is conclusive proof that education that is not career-oriented breeds unemployment in the country.
What then shall be done to redress these curriculum imbalances? The development of a personalized curriculum education system and abolishment of the NCS is the first step in fixing the South African education system problems. This solution is in agreement with Glines (2012:176) who predictively quotes from Anthony Blair who posits “a revolution, like in politics and economy, will occur in education too; where there would be a movement against the education system that; every child at the same age has to choose from a compulsory list of subjects as his curriculum”. That revolution is upon us today!
That is why it is this publication’s proposal that when learners reach Grade 8, they should be scattered according to various school divisions (focus schools) that provide relevant curricula towards the attainment of learners’ career path desires. High Schools found in a single District can be restructured differently as: School of Commerce and Entrepreneurship, School of Agriculture and Maritime, School of Languages, Drama & Arts and Journalism, School of Law, History and Politics, School of Engineering) etc.
With secondary schools structured in this fashion, learners can then be aligned in accordance with such divisions to begin to pursue their passions at an early age so that after Matric, learners have already been introduced to what they wish to pursue. These schools will be operating under the specific requirements of an effective personalized education curriculum system.
It is with such observations and concerns that the Simnandi education private group developed a Personalized Education Curriculum System (PECS). 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 dignity of our education system. PECS ensures that learners taste a 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 them: https://simnandisolutions.co.za/pecs- questionnaires/