A Curriculum for All?

For six years, Oscar Kirabo has been learning under Uganda’s revised secondary school curriculum.

For him, the classroom is no longer simply a place to read books, memorise notes and prepare for examinations. It is increasingly a place to create, experiment, solve problems and demonstrate what he can do.

That matters to Oscar because he has a hearing impairment.

“It is important for me to go into the practical part of learning,” he says.

During one class project, Oscar worked with other learners to develop designs and models. Students were placed in groups, allowing them to exchange ideas and learn different skills.

“We are grouped so that we are able to develop different skills,” he explains. “We are able to build, and we are provided with manila that are visual so that in future we are able to innovate some other things.”

Then he proudly points to one of his creations.

“It’s a pathway,” he says.

For Oscar, that small model represents something much bigger.

It demonstrates what competence-based education can offer learners with hearing impairments when teaching moves beyond spoken instruction and allows them to learn and express themselves visually and practically.

But at Wakiso School for the Deaf, Oscar’s experience also raises a bigger question.

As Uganda transforms its education system, is that transformation reaching every learner equally?

A different way of learning

Uganda began rolling out the revised lower secondary curriculum in 2020, shifting away from an education system heavily centred on memorisation and examinations towards one that emphasizes skills, creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving and practical application of knowledge.

Learners are expected to participate more actively in their education through research, group work and projects.

For learners with hearing impairments, however, delivering that promise requires more than changing what appears in the curriculum.

It also requires changing how that curriculum is taught.

Wakiso School for the Deaf has 214 learners — 91 boys and 123 girls — whose education depends heavily on teaching approaches that accommodate their communication needs.

Among them are 16 candidates — six boys and 10 girls — preparing for their Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education examinations.

Their challenge is not simply whether they understand the revised curriculum. It is whether the education system has provided the teachers, materials, technology and learning environment they need to participate in it fairly.

Oscar believes practical learning has helped.

When lessons remain theoretical, concepts can be difficult to understand. But when he can see an idea demonstrated or turn it into something practical, learning becomes easier.

“I see a challenge whenever something is very hard and I have not revised initially,” he says.

Preparation is critical for him.

“When I revise, the exams become very easy and simple.”

His experience demonstrates the possibilities of competence-based learning for students with hearing impairments.

But across the same school, another learner’s experience reveals the gaps that remain.

Maria’s notes in the corner

Maria Mirembe is a literature student preparing for her final examinations.

She enjoys storytelling and literature, but some of the language used in lessons and learning materials can be difficult to understand.

“When the teacher comes in class to start teaching, sometimes their words are very hard,” Maria explains.

So she has developed her own system.

As the teacher writes on the blackboard, Maria identifies difficult words and ideas. She writes simplified explanations in the corner of her book so that she can return to them later.

“I summarize them by writing them at the corner of the book,” she says.

During her free time, she revisits the notes and tries to connect them to the rest of the lesson.

“In that way, this will be able to help me understand,” she says. “During my free time, I am able to connect these words, and that gives me joy and a big interest in my learning.”

It is an ingenious coping mechanism.

But it also raises an uncomfortable question for Uganda’s education system: How much responsibility should learners with disabilities carry for overcoming barriers that could be addressed through more accessible teaching and learning materials?

Maria faces another challenge.

The revised curriculum places considerable emphasis on project work, through which learners are expected to demonstrate creativity, collaboration, problem-solving and practical skills.

Yet Maria says some learners do not always have the skills, materials or instructions they need to complete those projects.

“For some of us, mostly the girls, we have limited skills,” she says.

Sometimes, she adds, a learner simply does not know where to start.

“You don’t know how to do it. You don’t know how to come up with the things needed.”

Even identifying the required materials can be difficult.

“You don’t know the materials, you don’t know what to write and what not.”

That exposes one of the contradictions at the heart of competence-based education.

A curriculum may ask learners to demonstrate creativity and innovation, but those competences cannot be assessed fairly if some learners do not have equal access to the instructions, resources and support required to develop them.

For learners with hearing impairments, communication barriers can deepen that disadvantage.

The teacher at the centre

Inside Wakiso School for the Deaf, much of the responsibility for bridging those gaps falls on teachers.

Tarach Brian Rothwell, a divinity teacher at the school, says teachers working with learners with hearing impairments must be competent in sign language.

Without effective communication between teacher and learner, even a well-designed curriculum can fail at the classroom door.

Rothwell uses group learning as one strategy.

“I mix the one who is fast learning with the ones who are slow,” he says.

A learner who grasps a concept quickly can help classmates who need additional support. The arrangement encourages peer learning while developing leadership and communication skills.

But Rothwell says teachers themselves are also being asked to adapt to an increasingly demanding education environment.

“The new curriculum, at times, takes time for you to prepare and arrange the things that you need in class,” he says.

Technology adds another layer.

Projectors, televisions, internet resources and other digital tools can make lessons more visual and potentially more accessible to learners with hearing impairments.

But only when teachers know how to use them.

“You must go and learn them because there is no way you are going to handle a class when there is internet and you don’t know how to operate the projectors, the TVs, whatever,” Rothwell says.

His experience shifts the accountability question beyond individual teachers.

If government changes what teachers are expected to deliver, who ensures they receive the specialised training, technology and resources required to deliver it inclusively?

Did teacher preparation keep pace with reform?

Professor George Wilson Kasule, who heads the Department of Education, Planning and Management at Kyambogo University, believes teacher preparation should have been central to the implementation of competence-based education.

“The concept of competence-based education should have started with the teachers so that they actually master what competence-based education is,” he says.

His concern goes beyond individual classrooms.

Kasule points to the institutions responsible for different parts of Uganda’s education system — including the National Curriculum Development Centre, teacher-training institutions, the Uganda National Examinations Board and education inspectors.

For competence-based education to work, he argues, these institutions need a shared understanding of what competences are, how they should be taught and how they should ultimately be assessed.

“We would have a dialogue first,” he says.

That coordination becomes even more important in special-needs education.

A curriculum can be inclusive in principle while remaining inaccessible in practice if the needs of learners with disabilities are not considered in teacher preparation, learning materials, classroom delivery and assessment.

And that is where Uganda’s education reform faces an important accountability test.

The question is no longer merely whether government has introduced a curriculum that encourages creativity and practical skills.

It is whether adequate investment and preparation have followed the policy.

Are teachers in special-needs schools receiving sufficient training in competence-based teaching?

Do schools have enough accessible learning materials?

Are project requirements designed with different categories of learners in mind?

Do teachers have the technology — and the skills to use it — to make lessons more visual?

And are assessment systems flexible enough to recognise different ways in which learners can demonstrate competence?

These are questions that determine whether inclusion exists beyond policy documents.

Inclusion beyond the classroom door

Oscar’s pathway model demonstrates what is possible.

Given an opportunity to build, collaborate and present knowledge visually, he can demonstrate abilities that may not emerge through traditional classroom instruction alone.

Maria’s small notes in the corner of her book tell another side of the story.

They show determination and creativity, but they also represent the additional work some learners must do simply to access what others may understand more easily.

Together, their experiences challenge Uganda to reconsider what educational inclusion really means.

It cannot simply mean admitting learners with disabilities into school.

It must mean giving them a fair opportunity to understand, participate, create and demonstrate what they know.

That requires teachers who can communicate effectively in sign language and understand inclusive teaching methods. It requires accessible learning materials and adequate resources for project work. It requires investment in technology and teacher ICT skills.

Most importantly, it requires institutions responsible for curriculum design, teacher preparation, inspection and assessment to work together.

Uganda’s revised curriculum represents an ambitious attempt to prepare young people for a world where knowledge alone is no longer enough.

But its success should not only be measured by how well it works for learners who can easily navigate conventional classrooms.

It should also be measured by what happens to learners like Oscar and Maria.

For Oscar, a model pathway is evidence of what practical learning can unlock.

For Maria, handwritten summaries squeezed into the corner of a notebook are a bridge between difficult classroom language and understanding.

Neither should have to depend on individual determination alone.

For the 16 candidates at Wakiso School for the Deaf preparing for their final examinations, the coming months will test what they have learned.

But there is another test underway — one for Uganda’s education system itself.

Has the country simply changed its curriculum, or has it built an education system capable of ensuring that every learner can benefit from that change?