Curricular Development and Design for Term Paper

The National Curriculum publication entitled: "The Secondary Curriculum" relates the national challenge in creation of the secondary curriculum to include the challenges as follows:

1) Raise achievement in all subjects and most particularly in mathematics and English; (2) to equip learner with skills (personal, learning, and thinking) needed to succeed in education as well as in life and capacity for employment;

3) Motivate and engage learners;

4) enable a smooth progression from primary, through secondary school and onward;

5) encourage young individuals to pursue higher education;

6) Provide the flexibility needed by schools to tailor instruction to individual and local needs;

7) Ensure that assessment supports effective instruction and learning; and 8) Provide more opportunities for focused support and challenge. (National Curriculum, 2008)

In order that curriculum be designed effectively to meet the individualized and personalized needs of learners in the secondary school it will be absolutely necessary that all stakeholders are involved in curriculum content. It is not possible for national standards to effectively dictate to each individual school what the curriculum requirements should be because they differ from school to school, region-to-region and state to state as well as differing vastly between individual students in the inclusive secondary school setting.

The work entitled: "Financing the Expansion of Secondary Education" relates that efforts focused toward increasing enrollment in primary schools has been successful and has simultaneously put secondary schools and education systems under "constant pressure to meet their demands for further education."

Stated as the grounds for expansion of secondary education are those as follows:

1)Providing learning after primary education is essential to consolidate what has already been learnt. Many achievement studies undertaken in developing countries show that upon graduating from primary schools students have only a shaky grasp of core competencies. Extending basic education to eight or nine years, incorporating what used to be lower secondary, should contribute to students mastering literacy, numeracy and acquiring an understanding of the world around them.

2) at secondary level students can develop reasoning and thinking skills that are inaccessible to younger children. It is at that level that youngsters can be expected to acquire the common culture that will allow them to be useful citizens, to build knowledge through experience and experiments, and to learn essential subjects such as health education, science and technology. It is there again that large numbers of youngsters can be taught how to think, how to work, how to work in teams and how to live together.

3) Expanding quality secondary education is essential to ensure a better-educated teaching force at the first level.

4) Opening learning opportunities beyond primary education is necessary to motivate primary school pupils to complete their primary education. Indeed, as primary education has expanded, the market value of a primary school certificate has substantially decreased, and only those who continue to secondary may hope to obtain access to a job in the modern sector.

5) the countries that experienced the highest level of economic growth in the past decade had all invested substantially in their secondary education a number of years before, as the fast developing countries of East and South-East Asia and Europe illustrate.

SUMMARY and CONCLUSION

The literature reviewed in this work has informed this study that planning of curriculum in secondary education institutions are informed by research both in terms of the developed models for use in study and the documentation of findings. The literature reviewed in this study has demonstrates that necessary revisions are needed to curriculum in secondary schools in order to provide better quality and more relevant education in preparing students to enter the work world. This must be accompanied by reductions in inequities in education and in to ensure equal access to quality education. In the past development of curriculum was an activity that involved the entire school staff however, in today's world curriculum development involves many sectors of society including the business, corporate and industry sectors and includes the collaboration of educational institutions and community agencies and organizations across the wide spectrum of the school base in order to determine curriculum needs and develop and effective and enabling curriculum for today's secondary inclusive schools.

Works Cited

Motivans, a.; Bruneforth, M. And Kennedy, a. (2005) Global perspectives on growth in secondary education IIEP Newsletter Volume 23 Number 2, June 2005.

Tennant, Jessica (2005)Transition from primary to secondary schooling: valuing alternative literacies as a strategy for fostering academic success" Practically Primary Volume 10 Number 2, June 2005; Pages 39-40

Hernes, Gudmund (2001) Mind Over Matter. International Institute for Educational Planning - IIEP Oct-Dec 2001. Vol. XIX, No. 4 Online available at http://www.unesco.org/iiep/eng/newsletter/2001/octe01.pdf?class=IIEP_PDF_pubs&page=Newsocte01&estat_url=http://www.unesco.org/iiep/eng/newsletter/2001/octe01.pdf

Alchemists of the Mind - Excerpt from the Director's address to the participants in IIEP's 35th Annual Training Programme in Educational Planning, and Management at the end of their training, Paris, 23 May, 2000. Online available at http://www.unesco.org/iiep/eng/newsletter/2000/jule00.pdf?class=IIEP_PDF_pubs&page=Newsjule00&estat_url=http://www.unesco.org/iiep/eng/newsletter/2000/jule00.pdf

Muijs, Daniel, et al. (2004) Every Child Matters, Leading Under Pressure: Leadership for Social Inclusion. National College for School Leadership. Online available at http://www.ncsl.org.uk/media/0F4/19/ecm-leading-social-inclusion-full-report.pdf

The Secondary Curriculum (2008) National Curriculum. Online available at http://curriculum.qca.org.uk/organising-your-curriculum/the_secondary_curriculum/index.aspx

Financing the Expansion of Secondary Education (2001) IIEP Newsletter Oct-Dec 2001 Vol. XIX, No. 4. Online available at http://www.unesco.org/iiep/eng/newsletter/2001/octe01.pdf?class=IIEP_PDF_pubs&page=Newsocte01&estat_url=http://www.unesco.org/iiep/eng/newsletter/2001/octe01.pdf