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0 Introduction
Curriculum has been defined in several ways by several authorities in education. Potham &
Baker (2009) defined curriculum as all planned learning outcomes for which the school is
To Tyler, (1957) Curriculum is all of the learning of students which is planned and directed
by the school to attain its educational goals. This definition does not include all the
experiences of the child that is not planned which is not facilitated by the school.
Tanner and Tanner (1995) also agree with Ronald Doll (`1978) when they defined curriculum
as a plan or programme of all experiences which learner encounters under the direction of a
school.
Gattawa (1990) also echoes the same thing when he defined curriculum as the ``totality of the
experiences of children for which schools are responsible ``. in view of all the above
definitions giving to curriculum, it is therefore prudent to say that curriculum should always
include all the experiences of the child whether planned or unplanned. The above definition
also suggests that the child could gain experiences from outside the school environment.
All curriculums have their purpose, content, methods or learning experiences and evaluation.
There are two curriculum designs. The basic driving force is the needs, conditions, problems
and aspiration of the society or nation. The centralized curriculum is the the curriculum
design whereby the decisions pertaining to the content, planning process and its
education.
Marsh and Stafford (1998) cited in Chapman & Dunstan (1990) observed that centralization
will depend on components such as; school organization, curriculum and teaching methods,
and finance. Nagel (1977) asserts that a centralized curriculum system is one in which the
With the aim of achieving national goals, decision on what is to be learnt i.e. the subject
content is taken at the national level. In this system the ideals of the nation and its
philosophies are inculcated and a well structured syllabus is produced to be used in the
schools.
The centralized system of curriculum design is noted as one which has a uniform mode of
certifying the learners. This certification process is determined and controlled at the national
level. In Ghana and other countries in the sub-region such as Zimbabwe, parastastals are
contracted by the Ministry of Education to award certificates to students based on set criteria.
Another characteristic of this system is that all textbooks which would be used in the schools
are checked by the Ministry of Education through the Curriculum, Research and
Development Division (CRDD) if they are in compliance with the national syllabus before
Although, decision is taken at the national level, there are various curriculum development
teams who work in hierarchical order. The curriculum development in Zimbabwe the various
teams run from the school level, cluster, district, regional and finally to the national level,
whereas in Ghana the curriculum teams ranges from the district level, regional level, then
national level (I), national level (ii) and finally national level (iii). The two patterns described
In order assess the curriculum implementation process, various inspectorate teams are set by
the Ministry of Education to assess and monitor all activities taking place in the schools
nationally. In Ghana some of these monitoring teams include; District Education Oversight
Committees (DEOC), District Teacher Support Team (DTST), District Director of Education
(DDE) inspectorate team, National Inspectorate Boar d (NIB), Circuit Supervisors (CS) and
so on.
Traditionally subjects offered under this system are centrally based. In this case individual
schools have lean chance of choosing from a given set of subjects. This, however, does not
suggest that the various schools decide entirely what they would offer. It only means that the
schools would have to select automatically the core subjects, but are allowed to choose some
of the elective subjects out of the given list of subjects. For example a technical school can
decide to offer science based courses such as physics, chemistry and biology whilst a
vocational school would decide to offer courses in visual arts and home economics.
With respect to the design and implementation of a centralized curriculum, it takes a much
longer time due to the bureaucracies in the system. Here, before decision reaches the topmost
level for final approval, it might have spent some years at the various lower levels.
Another important feature of this system is that various evaluative instrument are prescribed
by the Ministry of Education. In Ghana for example evaluating students based on the content
of the subjects taught in the schools is executed by the West Africa Examination Council
(WAEC). This body administers standardized exams which would be taken by all students
offering the same course in the nation. All rules and regulations concerning these
centralized system is the same for all students, irrespective of where one is coming from in
the country. These requirements are prescribed and documented by the Ministry of Education
and circulated to all schools. This would include an acceptable grade point, number of
One distinctive feature of the non-centralized pattern curriculum design is that though
subjects studied in the various schools could be the same, the content may vary from school
to school, district to district and in other big countries, state to state as in Nigeria. This means
that students could all be offering say Agriculture Science in all the schools, but the content
could be different. For example, whereas emphasis would be placed on fishing activities in
the curriculum of the students in coastal areas, crop farming would be emphasized in the
forest zones. After all the traditional function of education is the transmission of the culture of
the people which include the food they eat, their occupation, festivals, songs and so on.
Fundamentally, it is the local communities who initiate the necessary changes and inputs into
the curriculum design of the non-centralized system. They advocate for a curriculum which
would suit their needs and aspirations and since every community or district has its own
Owing to the fact that differences may exist I terms of content or subject matter ranging from
community to community, district to district or state to state, syllabus also differ likewise. In
this case, each community, district or state would have its own approved syllabus.
Furthermore, under this curriculum pattern, evaluation and assessment differs from one place
to another. Since each school, district or state has its own syllabus; it is only prudent to assess
the performance of students based on the content in the particular that was used in the
Unlike the centralized system, very few people are involved in designing a non-centralized
curriculum, as a result the design process and its implementation is very fast.
Under this system there is a close collaboration between teachers, parents and interest groups
in the community and they decide what should constitute the body of knowledge that
Additionally, all teaching and learning materials such as syllabus and textbooks are produced
locally therefore production is very fast and the schools get to use the materials at the
appropriate time.
It is an undeniable fact that in the centralized curriculum design achieving the national goals
is very easy. During the design of this type of curriculum, the developers make sure that the
national aims or developmental agenda embedded. Since this curriculum is used by all
schools in the nation, these ideologies are transferred to the learners quickly, easily and
equitably. Learning has been defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior, therefore
if learning takes place in the students; it means their mind would be tilted to the aims and
It is quite obvious that the production of teaching and learning materials would be less
expensive due to the mass production, since the more you produce the less the cost or the
from one school to another. Usually government workers such as teachers, police officers
would have to be transferred from one district to another or even on regional basis. In this
case their children would have to leave their school and enroll in a school in their new
destination. Since all the schools use the same syllabus, textbooks, etc, they are easily
Under this curriculum pattern admission requirements into secondary and tertiary institutions
are the same everywhere. As result of this accessibility becomes very easy because there are
no barriers regarding the authenticity of certificates. Here students have the opportunity to
access any school of their choice provided they meet the admission criteria of the institution.
With respect to circulation of information to the various institutions, it is very reliable, fast
and efficient since it is controlled by the Ministry of Education which is well resourced and
has the capacity to carry out such activities. Usually information carried to the various
Invariably, this pattern has a greater propensity to unite the people in the nation. For example,
Ghana is a nation of culture plurality and there is the need for the citizens to understand each
others culture to promote unity. Under this system teachers and students and school staff can
be transferred from one district or from one region to another. This brings culture bonding
Lastly, institutions usually benefit from experts who are drawn from different parts of the
sometimes seen to be insensitive to the needs and aspirations of some groups in the country
especially the marginalized. For instance all a community would need is to get people who
would help them with their agricultural needs but the curriculum would be doing otherwise.
In such situations the peculiar needs of such a group would be seriously undermined.
The designing process of a centralized curriculum system takes a much longer time as a result
of the bureaucratic nature of its structure. This implies that a lot of bottle necks would have to
be dealt with and removed the document progress through the various stages of the hierarchy
before a final agreement is reached at the top level. Sometimes, before textbooks, syllabuses,
curriculum change or innovations are approved of; they lose their value because they might
Creativity and innovation by teachers and other community members is simply not possible.
This type of curriculum design is so rigidly structured such that it does not give room for
subjects at the end of a specific time and therefore there is no time to spend on other
Inarguably, there is always some implementation challenges with such curriculum design,
owing to the fact that the main implementers are not very much involved in the designing
process. Sometimes, they have little or no inputs and ultimately not much committed during
the implementation.
Another limitation of this system is that there are bound to be some coordination and
communication challenges when parastaltals are involved in the design of the curriculum. For
example, when West African Examination Councils involved in the evaluation process,
sometimes they would test students outside the scope of the syllabus and this will bring a
problem.
In terms of evaluation there is no equity because all students the same examination though
they are taught under different conditions. Some well endowed schools which are well
resourced sit for the same exams as their counterparts in poorly resourced schools in the
hinterlands. No flexibility or adjustment are provided to cater for students in less endowed
Lastly, it has been observed that this system fails to fulfill the true traditional functions of
education, since it seeks to emphasize mainly knowledge (the cognitive) at the expense of the
affective and psychomotor skills. For example, in the African society education plays a two-
facet function which are; the transmission of African culture and the training of character.
Teachers rush the students through the syllabus so that they can pass their examinations and
obtain their certificates, thus there is little time for purely practical work.
In the first place, there is no doubt that under a non-centralized curriculum system the needs
Usually, the local community initiates the curriculum design, the decisions and direction of
the curriculum may be heavily influenced by the communitys tradition and philosophy.
This system also creates the enabling environment for creativity and innovation on the part of
the members of the community and the teachers. Here, teachers have the free will to adapt the
curriculum to suit the peculiar needs of the students and the community.
Invariably, students usually learn what is relevant to them and the society in which they live.
This is in consonance with the idealists aim of education which states that Education should
enable the child to achieve self realization and an ultimate discipline and exaltation to life.
Dewey, like Rousseau, maintained that true education is one which is meaningful and useful
Usually a non-centralized pattern takes a comparatively shorter time in terms of the design
process and its final production because it does not have to go through bureaucratic stages;
hence decentralization increases the speed with which non-routine decisions are made with
Owing to the fact that the local people were a party to the design process, their level of
commitment in terms of implementation is boosted. This stems from the fact that they do not
Disparity in terms of examination is reduced since this system uses more of continuous
assessment in their grading system and also examination conducted is favourable even to
those students in the remote places since their peculiar problems are factored in when
considering the time for evaluating performance and the content of the examination
questions.
Decentralization leads to a more competitive climate. As managers are able to exercise more
autonomy, they tend to respond to problems with greater ingenuity (Gison, Ivancevich &
Donnely, 1973).
One major problem with the decentralized system is the difficulty of transferring students
from one school to the other. Apparently, the content of the subjects studied may vary from
district to district so it is often difficult for the smooth continuity of students academic
the community may be very narrow and inadequate to cover the broader perspective of the
national aims.
Furthermore, production of teaching and learning materials poses a difficulty due to the fact
that producing in small quantities may increase the cost of production in terms of unit cost
Also districts which have lower capacity in terms of funding will find it difficult to provide
Another limitation of this system is the lack of adequate expertise as everything is done in the
local community. This system does not give room to involving a wide range of experts from
different regions or at the national level who usually enrich the curriculum content.
Looking at the geographical location of schools and the fact that the teacher has some level of
independence in executing his classroom activities it would look more a decentralized system
rather than a centralized one. However, in most developing nations the education system is
structured in a hierarchy where the apex is the central government ministries where most
Coombs, (1974) cited in Randinelli et al (1990) tried to look critically at the formal structure
and the way the system actually operates. He simply concluded that though the control over
misleading. He observed that a clear disconnect between central officials and the local
schools exist since interaction between them were often sporadic visits by inspectors,
directors of education and even when the central ministry is in full control there are often
In 1987, it was recorded that in Tanzania, the central educational ministry was powerless in
controlling the expansion of private secondary schools outside the capital due to the fact that
local groups were well organized and also asserted themselves. This phenomenon was as the
result of the local people perceiving the governments inability to meet local demands.
Under the centralized system, due to the bureaucracy involved before the Education Ministry
gets the budgetary allocations, often the ministry is unable to provide equipment and
supplies. In Ghana for instance, the Ministry of Education is subject to strong external
controls like the Ministry of Finance and its subsidiary the Controller and Accountant
Generals Department (CAGD) which puts constraints on the ministrys ability to implement
Nations such as Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Ghana are all shifting to the decentralized
system. In Columbia responsibility for primary and secondary education has been
decentralized to the department level where each department maintains a regional fund for
financing education. This enable the community to set standard of quality of their children.
1.9 CONCLUSION
1.9 REFERNCES
Chapman D. J., & Dunstan J. F. (1990) Democracy and Bureaucracy in Public Schooling.
Psychology Press.
Dabi-Dankwa, S. N.O. (1996) Educating the African Child: A Manual for Parents and Social
Workers Book 2 Accra Step Publishers.
Tanner, D. & Tanner, L. (1995) Curriculum Development: Theory into Practice 3rd Ed.
Englewood Cliffs. NJ: Merrhl.