Zimbabwe adopts new ‘School-Based Projects’ to replace CALA

GOVERNMENT has announced the adoption of new guidelines for the implementation of school-based projects and directed educators to embrace these to foster critical thinking and problem-solving skills among learners through use of local resources to produce goods and services.

The school-based projects replaced the unpopular Continuous Assessment of Learning Activities (CALA), which was introduced when the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education implemented the competence-based education curriculum between 2017 and 2023.

The CALA model was not popular with stakeholders in the education sector, particularly parents, who complained of the load burden, arguing that they were now doing most of the assignments for pupils.

During the curriculum review process, stakeholders in the education sector lobbied for the strapping of CALA and the Government heeded the call, and introduced the school-based projects.

The school-based projects compel the education sector to ensure most of the assignments are done from school. In a circular dated October 16, which was sent to stakeholders in the education sector, Primary and Secondary Education Permanent Secretary, Mr Moses Mhike, said the school-based projects should be done within the learning institutions.

He said the Heritage Based Curriculum framework 2024-2030 is building on the strengths of the Competence-Based Curriculum whose bias was to produce a pupil with 21st Century skills.

Mr Mhike said the Heritage-Based Curriculum aims to produce goods and services that impact the whole spectrum of society through the use of local resources.

“A school-based project is a learning activity that provides pupils with opportunities to analyse, synthesise and apply knowledge in a real-life (hands-on) situation. It is geared at solving problems in the classroom, school, community, and the world at large,” he said.

“It fosters pupils’ creativity, innovation, critical thinking, and their ability to work with others to solve real-life problems. A school-based project shall mainly be done within the school environment using locally available resources as much as possible,” said Mr Mhike.

He said teachers will be expected to direct pupils throughout the project as they acquire skills, in a shift from the past where most of the work was done at home.

Mr Mhike said pupils are expected to develop skills for collaboration, teamwork, problem-solving, critical thinking, research, leadership, technology, analysis, and synthesis, among others.

Under this model, learners will be expected to develop portfolios, models, write-ups, reports, or performances as they progress with the project.

“Project activities shall be done in stages and will be interactive to allow adjustments and re-adjustments as pupils get feedback from the teacher, peers, and even from parents or guardians,” said the Permanent Secretary. “Progressive scoring guides and learner progress reports shall be used in every stage of project execution and marks shall be awarded based on the progressive scoring guide that will be provided.”

Mr Mhike said pupils will be expected to identify problems within the society and find solutions to them.

“This is a process where a pupil recognises and defines a specific issue, innovation, or challenge that he or she wants to address. A pupil creates own possible ideas or solutions to solve the problem,” he added.

Mr Mhike said infant school pupils (ECD A to Grade 2) will be assessed through play and exploration of various materials to assess their problem-solving skills.

At this level, the teacher will be expected to take an active role in developing infant pupils’ skills in the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains. …