A Need for Curriculum Reform in the Education System

Louis Zabaneh

Time is a limited resource for teachers and students and the issue of having too much content crammed into a curriculum affects their ability to learn qualitatively.  While it is not the same as excessive workload for teachers and school leaders, there is a tendency to include new content items in the curriculum as a response to new demands without proper consideration of what needs to be removed.  The Ministry of Education has been looking at the issue closely and Doctor Louis Zabaneh presented on the need for curriculum reform during a recent consultation meeting.

Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of State, Education

“In our research, we found that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development presents mostly developed countries, themselves, have seen this issue of curriculum overload in their countries.  So they made the following statement that confronted with the needs and request of parents, universities and employers, schools are dealing with curriculum overload.  As a result, students often lack sufficient time to master key disciplinary concepts or, in the interest of a balanced life, to nurture friendships, to sleep and to exercise.  It is time to shift the focus of our students from “more hours for learning” to quality learning time.  So we see that it’s not us just here in Belize that we observed the negative effects of curriculum overload but other countries are also seeing that we must not sacrifice quality with quantity.”