Zimbabwe CURRICULUM REVIEW - NO TO CALA

NO TO CALA

Reasons:

1. Competence Based Curriculum testing competence of parents and guardians as they are the ones doing the CALAs. 

2. Not all households with school going children have phones with Internet access to research, data charges too high, what about rural children or those in the care of the elderly who are not computer literate.

3. Children now lacking social skills, they have no time to play and socialise because of the time spent doing these CALAs

4. Children now prone to stressful conditions leading to depression and substance use (mbanje, etc), increasing incidences of suicide in children due to frustrations of this Curriculum.

5. Children now prefer to totally abscond school than to go when they have not completed the CALA which is a really sad situation. 

6. CALAs are still essentially theory,  not practical, so how are we gauging the competence of the children through these. Eg, a child poor in English still has to do a Geography CALA in English which he will fail because his challenge is English.

7. What was wrong with the Home Economics, Technical Graphics, Woodwork, Agriculture in primary school level? These identified the practical skills of the children at a tender age.

8. The need to provide children with smartphones for research has exposed them to all things found in the Internet, eg sex at tender ages, pornography, homosexuality etc.

9. The education system does not provide equal opportunities through this CALA. Most schools have no computers, no Internet access, not enough resources for this Curriculum. 

10. The Ministry of Education should consider the economic status of the average Zimbabwean family, the fact that due to HIV we have a lot of child-headed families and children under the care of grandparents who cannot afford to put food on the table, let alone data.