Page 54 - Jurnal Kurikulum BPK 2018

Curriculum Implementation and Its Challenges:

Reducing The Gap between The Aspired and Its Implementation

Ng Soo Boon, PhD
Curriculum Development Division
sooboon@moe.gov.my

Abstract

Development of school curriculum in many countries is still very centralized. The National School
Curriculum as a program of learning for the younger generations is a highly sensitive document
as it contains the aspiration of the nation, preparing its citizen to face future challenges. It is a
document of hope. However, much of the excitement during the adoption of the curriculum
documents diminishes and often replaced by dissapoinment in the implementation stage. Sarcasm
arises when it is found that there are gaps between the aspiration and the actual implementation.
Gap in curriculum implementation is inevitable as there is no perfect system yet exist in this world
to ensure seamless coordination between all the different sectors involved in curriculum
implementation. However, this gap can be narrowed if more time is allowed for careful planning
before the aspired curriculum is implemented. In many instances, in the quest of obtaining faster
result, the many enabling blocks of curriculum implementation are not being seriously pondered
and deliberated upon. Often, the management of change among implementers are not being
looked into carefully. The systemic change that is of absolute necessity for a change of this scale
was not being orchestrated well and human factors not being deliberatedly deeply. This paper
looks into the various factors influencing curriculum implementation, especially looking at
curriculum implementation as a change process.

Keywords: Curriculum Implementation, Change Management in Curriculum Implementation

PROLOGUE

A curriculum plan not implemented effectively has no added value to the existing
education system, it will be a liability when it is found to be not cost effective and its impact not
significant. After the process of designing, developing and piloting, finally, it’s time the
curriculum plan rolls out to its target; in another word, the curriculum plan is ready to be
implemented. Figure 1 indicates the position of curriculum implementation in a curriculum
development cycle practised by many countries.

This paper was presented in the Asia Pacific Conference on Curriculum Studies and
Instructional Design, 22 – 24 Sept 2017, Manila, Philippines

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