ANALYSIS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE VOCATIONAL CAREER PATHWAY OF THE 2013 CURRICULUM IN SELECTED SCHOOLS IN LUSAKA DISTRICT, ZAMBIA

Abstract

The Zambian education system is a two tire system consisting of the vocational and academic career path ways. Under the vocational wing, there are five career path ways predominantly focused on to equip learners with knowledge, skills, values and attitudes. The aim of this study was to analyse the implementation of the revised curriculum for the vocational career path way in selected secondary schools in Lusaka district. The study adopted a mixed method approach and used the explanatory sequential design. Seven (7) head teachers were interviewed while twelve (12) teachers responded to a questionnaire with seventy (70) learners who responded to a questionnaire. Twelve (12) learners were further interviewed and two lessons were also observed in each school. The findings of the study were that none of the schools under the study had allocated the expected number of periods to vocational skills subjects. A normal period of 40 minutes was reduced to 35 minutes during the COVID 19 period in some schools with others reducing the number of school days per week to two. The findings of the study also revealed that schools had adequate and qualified teachers to teach vocational subjects. However, they seem to be some teachers who are misplaced as their area of specialisations were a mismatch. Further, it was learnt that learners had acquired a number of skills from vocational subjects but did not aspire for the expected future jobs for skills acquired. The majority still chose white collar jobs as opposed to jobs matching the skills that they had acquired. The findings of the study further revealed that the teaching strategies expected to be used by teachers in the teaching of vocational skills were not being used by the majority of the teachers and when they were used, they did not use them appropriately due to lack of teaching and learning resources. Other facilities were also reported as inadequate. A further revelation was that the tenets of the revised curriculum remained unfamiliar to some teachers teaching vocational subjects thereby not effectively teaching the skills. Recommendations were made that infrastructure development, funding, career guidance for learners, continued teacher orientation, correct allocation of number of periods and supervision by curriculum developers were urgently needed if the revised curriculum was to be the answer to vision 2030 of the country.