Weighting Percentage: 50% Submission Date: 28/4/2018 In these tasks you will draft a curriculum proposal to meet an emerging need in your professional context. In this task (task 3) you will submit...

Running Head: CURRICULUM PROPOSAL
CURRICULUM PROPOSAL
CURRICULUM PROPOSAL
FOR INTRODUCTION OF DECENTRALISED CURRICULUM IN SCIENCE SUBJECT
BHUTANESE CONTEXT IN GRADE 5
    
CURRICULUM PROPOSAL FOR INTRODUCTION OF DECENTRALISED CURRICULUM IN SCIENCE SUBJECT (IN BHUTAN)
The aim of the decentralized cu
iculum is to impart additional responsibilities to schools or to transfer the decision making powers to lower or school-based management. It may include the appointment of school councils, allotment of the certain budgetary amount to them each year and grant them the decision making authority for all the education policies(Department of Cu
iculum Research and Development,2011).
The Rationale for Proposed Cu
iculum
The present form of cu
iculum in Bhutan is centralized (National Cu
iculum Framework,2009). Having experienced the shortcomings of this pattern, I believe that decentralized model will increasingly empower the local schools to incept changes in their internal as well as external environment. They will turn out to be more attentive towards solving the ground-based issues of students in school. This pattern of cu
iculum fully relies on Central Management Body and its decisions. The central body owns complete power for all the available resources in education sector like people, finance, regulations, administration, and technology(National Cu
iculum Framework,2009). The operations of all the schools follow the same practices as directed by the central authority. It is also responsible for job appointments, selection, cu
iculum development and infrastructure related issues.
In decentralized pattern (followed in UK and Germany), some of the powers like financial allocations and cu
iculum designing are transfe
ed to the schools. The school management takes all the decisions related to these issues. But the main controlling powers still remain with central head office. It results into increased performance of students, effective implementation of policies and available resources, and deeper level of involvement of teachers and school administration. It will empower the administration of schools to foster better changes in their learning environment.
According to Department of Cu
iculum Research and Development (2011), my recommendations and proposal for the decentralized cu
iculum are based on the following points:
1. It is nearly impractical to control and manage all the operations of a highly complex education system spread across the country from a single highest position.
2. As the education system is changing from teacher centered to student-centered learning, centralization does not address the issues like shared decision making, and participation of everyone to provide (DIY) practical learning environment at schools. Decentralization increases the autonomy of school administration enabling resourcefulness, problem-solving skills, and creativity in students.
3. Local administration having experienced all the local problems can better help in decision making for solving their regional issues.
4. The principal can effectively handle the teachers and administration to achieve greater levels of commitment in their work.
5. Structuring the goals for school and their implementation will be a priority for Principals and they will adopt multiple ways to achieve them for their professional growth.
6. It will make the schools accountable for their own development and progress. Efficient Evaluations will measure their performance and achievements.
7. It will also encourage the involvement of parents and other local communities in providing suggestions about the possible improvements in the school.
8. The lower level people like students, parents, teachers, and school administration who are mainly affected by the unnecessary burden of ineffective regulations can initiate the educational reforms quite more influentially. It will improve the education quality.
However, there must be centralized powers vested in the Central Educational Body as complete decentralization will never facilitate cohesiveness in education system.
The material to be covered in Cu
iculum
To implement the decentralized model for cu
iculum, it is proposed that there will be a basic fundamental national cu
iculum and one local cu
iculum. 80% of the content of cu
iculum will be based on national cu
iculum and will be compulsorily taught to all the Bhutanese science students of grade 5, and remaining 20% will be based on local or regional specifications of Bhutan(Ziba,2011).
Considering decentralization in the framework, the authority will be given to the staff of regional directorate in basic education to supervise the newly implied programs mentioned in cu
iculum reform framework. The regional directorate will report the feedback after implementing, observing and assessing the impact of new reforms in due course of time, to the state administrative regulatory bodies(Ziba,2011). Pedagogical Committees will also be developed in each state who will collect the responses from all the regional administrative bodies and analyze their relevance from the perspective of school, community, the child and his family. The important and relevant responses will be forwarded to the central ministry of basic education in Bhutan. The central ministry will be responsible for handling all the issues of cu
iculum for primary children(Ziba,2011).
The implementation of new innovations, monitoring, and training of new cu
iculum will not be executed by the central ministry of basic education. It will be the responsibility of Pedagogical committees who will report directly to the Ministry of basic education (National Education Framework,2009).
For designing the cu
iculum, the priorities and proposals will be accepted by all the schools, and a concise report of all the schools will be transfe
ed to the regional directorates. The regional directorates will add their specifications to the list and may omit the i
elevant priorities from the draft of proposed cu
iculum model (National Education Framework,2009). The improved model will be finally sent to the central committee responsible for designing the cu
iculum. In this way the opinion of all the components of the system will be taken into account while writing the final cu
iculum for the schools.
The use of bilingual medium of education will be the main priority of cu
iculum reform as it will make it easier for regional and rural students to understand the concepts of science without having proficiency in second language (Ziba,2011). The proposed cu
iculum will involve the schools and regional committees in decision making of the whole education...