The Competences Acquired by Students in Secondary Schools and The Universities of Tanzania: A Review
Rwegasha Peter Ishemo *
Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
A Competence Based Curriculum is an educational framework that put emphasis on students to apply knowledge and skills in the real-world environment. It effectively promote competitiveness, innovation, and facilitate the acquisition of 21st Century competences among the students. The 21st Century competences are increasingly recognized as key competences for today’s young people to develop so that they can effectively participate in the global knowledge economy, thrive in an increasingly diverse society, use new technologies effectively, adapt to change and uncertainty, and continue to engage in lifelong learning. Competence Based Curriculum focuses on facilitating the teaching, learning, assessment and encourages students to demonstrate mastery of competences. Educators ensure that students have full mastery before they can move forward. The Review Article explained how various countries adopted the Competence Based Curriculum. The education systems wanted to make the curriculum more effective and responsive to societal and economical needs by providing relevant knowledge, skills, and competences for the students. Tanzanian government has made significant changes to its education and training policies, with the majority of these changes focusing on enhancing access, equity, quality and capacity building. The implementation of Competence Based Curriculum in various countries as well as in Tanzania indicated some effectiveness and systemic challenges. Scholars described the empirical findings and various experiences happening during the implementation. They provided the suggestions that can improve the components supporting the educational provision. Concerning the observation of students, they have been displaying weaknesses to demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and competences acquired from the education system. It is stipulated that students do not perform some educational activities that have already conducted in the preceding educational level. It’s like, there is lack of connection of competences in various levels of education. In that perspective, the educational stakeholders have been making an effort to assist students to improve the educational provision and demonstration of competences.
Keywords: Competence based curriculum, 21st century skills, key competences, demonstrating competences, global knowledge economy, Tanzania