Curriculum simply is the pre-defined course material that a student must fulfill in order to reach the qualification of further education. The question that arises here is how the student knows that the course material is something they can achieve, with the amount of knowledge that they have. Here comes the idea of Curriculum Development where the panel of professionals sitting together can create a standardized sequence of the program that any student wishes to study, as they pass the earlier ones.
Then What is CDC?
In Nepal, a department was created with the motive of enhancing the academic sector by developing curricular, reading books, and other related instruments that would help educational institutions meet the national goals of education. It is located at SanoThimi, Bhaktapur. This department was named as Curriculum Development Center. With the ultimate vision of being identified as the academic center that prepares a person to become job-oriented, student-centered, vocational, competitive, and skills-centered, they tend to provide qualitative education that could help the students even in real-life scenarios. The ultimate objective it had was to ensure that every individual has the proper and strategically arranged learning materials, prepared, which would guide them in choosing the university they wish to enroll in. Hence, in simple words, this department has been helping the faculties create as well as revise syllabi for an easy and effective learning experience.
What is The National Goal of Education?
The National goal of education is to increase the rate of literacy and educate people in a proper manner, with well-planned course structures. For this, the government of the country is offering free education to students from grades 1 to 8, while for grades 9 to 12, the education is free of cost. The lower secondary level school education completion (1 to 8) is something stated as compulsory.
Background Information About CDC
Initially started as the Curriculum, Textbook, and Supervision Centre in 1971, the Curriculum Development Center was renamed in 1997, and since its initial establishment, it has been working on meeting the needs and requirements of an academic section with the interest of students.
Until the Rana Regime (from 1846 to 1951 AD or 1903 to 2007 BS), normal residents were not allowed to study or enroll in any educative program. But as soon as the Rana Regime ended and Democracy started, the democratic government allowed everyone to study. 20 years after the end of the Rana Regime, and with the establishment of democracy, the CDC was established in 1971. Since its inception, it has been doing a really good job for the country’s education system.
Adaptation
With the rapid change in every sector, including academics, meeting the changes is not an easy task. However, they have left no space for complaints, and conduct both annual and periodic meetings for interaction, and discussion, to ensure that the subject matter being taught meets the requirements of the big educational market, internationally. Alongside regular meetings, additional events like research-oriented programs are also offered to students ensuring that the academics provided as up-to-date, in terms of being relevant, practical, and competitive.
Roles Played By CDC
The department has played a vital role when it comes to shaping the overall educational content and in doing so, they have ensured that the learners are made available with high-quality learning mechanisms.
Apart from all, the education department here has not been left out, and there is a group of people monitoring, and bringing changes to the educational standards in the country. With continuous regulation being done, they have been working neck-to-neck with the educational authorities and, together, they have been able to successfully set a standard of quality education.
Furthermore, established in 1971, and with more than 50 years of establishment now, the CDC has been able to support the higher education systems. For this, they have collaborated with various experts and industries that meet their educational standards and working requirements.
Stakeholders of CDC
Having a history of more than 50 years of establishment, the department has been working with many industries collaboratively. To date, the key stakeholders of the development center are all the involved people including the teachers, parents, students, learners, community members, school heads, collaboration partners, industries, board members, and the district administrators. One of the many industries that the CDC has been working with, is World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Nepal. Mr. Anil Manandhar, the Country Representative of WWF here, and Mr. Hari Bol Khanal, the Executive Director of CDC, signed the MoU to ensure that children from grades 1 to 10 get to learn about climate change and the importance of conserving the climate. With the world facing destruction in the changing climate, the two representatives of each party signed the MoU as an awareness initiative.
What has The Department Been Doing?
Currently, the Curriculum Development Centre has not only been involved in the curriculum needs and interests but has implemented more of a learner-centered strategy. For this, they have made a program to host workshops, and seminars, both domestically as well as internationally. Participating in such seminars with ultimately add value to their certificates, making them more practical-oriented.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Education along with this department has come up with the common decision that there will be three levels of education; Basic, Secondary, and Higher education, and after each level’s completion, the student will get the equivalent level school education completion certificates too.
With a team of 60 staff members, supporting the company, from both technical and administrative departments, the executive director there is one of the gazetted I class officers. The department has been working on providing the proper school curricula as per the existing group. They have the course structure prepared both for national as well as foreign level study. This means that the ones seeking to study or get a foreign degree will not face complications, with the structured set. It meets the equivalence of the foreign educational requirement, and basic-level language exams such as IELTS, or PTE should be done. In fact, one of the major objectives of the CDC is to ensure that the national and foreign educational institutions are in compliance with the existing rules and laws.
On-going Practices and Goals
Currently, this department has been strategically assisting the school curricula as per existing instructional materials required, and much more. Alongside meeting the national-level requirements, the course contents have the capacity to meet the international-level educational system. This means that the individuals who are within the circle of teaching and learning the country’s course contents can enjoy the assistance and facility of foreign educational institutions in compliance with the rules of the country they are willing to continue their learning.
The current rules and regulations of the national educational system of the country ensure that schools are facilitated with learning materials that provide students with qualitative school education. As the enthusiast Nepalese learners continue their learning, they can participate in additional co-curricular activities. These activities could be any solution book, a list of question papers from earlier years, an entrance preparation syllabus, teacher resource materials, and so forth.
What more, for enhancing the educational system of Nepal?
Traditionally, Nepal has been more of a face-to-face learning, or working face-to-face, country. However, the world has become more developed, when it comes to digitalization. For Nepal too, everything has started digitizing rapidly, after the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has brought a drastic change in the educational dimensions. With this, another thing that has changed is the need that today’s people are striving for. The learned and students today are not the same as they were in the past, too.
What might be stopping Nepal?
It seems that the government and the country have not been supporting the CDC properly, as the country has separated only 3.64% of the GDP in education. This also indicates that the country has not understood the importance of education, or prioritized education, to date. Being a developing country, Nepal has not been able to allocate resources and make education a priority, and not participate in the global educational competition, too. Meanwhile, other developed nations like Korea and Singapore are widely participating in the competition, as well as, investing heavily in education. Even when compared to developing nations, the country has not been able to compete with other developing countries like Ethiopia, Senegal, and Mozambique. Ethiopia has invested 3.74% of its GDP in education while Senegal has invested 4.9% and Mozambique 6.3%. Even with less investment, the CDC department has been doing quite a good job, when it comes to improvising the curriculum of the country.
Personal Opinion
The department under the Ministry of Education is responsible for looking after the curricula as per the existing law and has been continuously making efforts to improve the educational system of the country, for decades. Still, the country has not been able to meet the standard level of education or compete in the global educational competition, and the problem behind this could be a method that the department is using. there is no doubt that the CDC has been working on improvising the methodology. Still, there are places for improvement, and with the support of professionals, experts, and the government, the CDC can enhance the educational system of Nepal strategically.
