Basic Education: Reflections on Participatory Curriculum Development and Planning.

Overview & Synopsis

Basic education as the first stage of lifelong education is emerging as a significant alternative to traditional education, especially for rural populations in Third World countries. Basic education is a set of interrelated ideas: community orientation of education, integration of formal, nonformal, and informal learning into lifelong learning, stress on practical skills, involvement of the total population, and overcoming traditional subject orientation of curriculum. Education, an integral part of national development, is more effective when based on well-defined learning needs, and such a curriculum requires both horizontal and vertical integration within a country. Implications for curriculum planners include: concentration on basic needs (health, food, functional literacy); attitude change toward work and development; emphasis on integration of formal/nonformal education; implementation of a flexible, lifelong, lifewide curriculum encompassing needs identification, curriculum control, evaluation, levels of responsibility; new approach to teacher education, teacher role/function; alternative teaching/learning patterns; examination systems reflecting identified learning needs. Four case studies of formal and nonformal education in East Africa illustrate implications of participatory curriculum development and planning policies for educational planners, curriculum developers, and researchers. (RS)