The Curriculum

Introduction The success of any programme depends on an appropriate preplan and its accurate implementation. Curriculum is the name of such a preplan encompassing the entire activities in the domain of education. A curriculum of a specific education programme is laid to accommodate desires, tendencies, abilities, experiences and demands of learners in the backdrop of a society or a country. A curriculum contains answers to questions such as to who, why, what, how, with whose help, by what, where and for how long learners will learn. It also shows the ways of assessing their learning as well. A curriculum also addresses the aims and objectives of education, attainable learning outcomes, subjects and their contents, guidelines for teaching-learning activities and the like. Hence curriculum is called the blue-print for implementing education programmes and works as the base of developing textbooks and other teaching materials as well as conducting teaching-learning activities.
Curriculum development is a continuous process. As part of this process, serial evaluation of curriculum is very essential to identify its strengths and weaknesses as well as its effectiveness. Needless to say that the rapid changes in the domains of knowledge, science and technology results in social changes and learning demands. These changes and demands necessitate updating a curriculum through necessary revision and reformation. Besides, if any curriculum is too old to be revised and cannot meet the demands of any particular time, development of a new curriculum becomes inevitable. In addition, the implementation of a new education policy equally justifies the need of a new curriculum. All these realities underpin the development of National Curriculum 2012.

The National Curriculum
The National Curriculum is the agenda for teaching and learning in schools. It establishes the subjects taught and the knowledge, skills and understanding required for each subject. It also sets