What Challenges are There to Having a Stable Curriculum? | #9

Marium Asad, April 30, 2023

ducation serves as a foundation for any society. In general, higher quality education usually leads to a more thriving community. In order for this to be accomplished, a stable curriculum must be established. Yet many people don’t know what defines a stable curriculum, or how it can be maintained.

A stable curriculum is one that is able to change alongside society to better cater to the needs of the people, while still maintaining enough unchanging content that teachers are able to teach students without relearning the new curriculum each year. This is a hard balance to find, as most societies only focus on finding a good curriculum, and then choose to keep it for as long as possible, while ignoring the changing world around them.

Curriculum stability is important as it allows for fair comparison between the students. Some students may excel in certain areas, but do poorly in others. A stable, shared curriculum should be able to show these differences to people that are searching for certain qualities such as post-secondary education and possible employers. Stability also ensures that the cost of producing materials to help both educators and students is not too expensive. Having reusable materials will help save costs, as well as having durable textbooks that can last for years. Of course, the textbooks will be a challenge, as the material must remain relevant.

However, there are many challenges that occur when making a stable curriculum. The first is the release of new information. Due to modern technology and simply the vast amount of researchers, new theses and papers are dropped on the daily. New discoveries are made almost every minute, and it is impossible for us to change our curriculum every time something new is discovered. In Ontario, it was found that at least 50% of the curriculum was made about at least 10 years ago. This is a Canada wide problem, as parents in New Brunswick feel the same concerns. The Alberta government released a plan in April 2022, however, it only impacted grades K-6, and was largely rejected by most schools. The biggest problem with the new information is not about how to add it, but rather, when it replaces old information. For example, if a researcher disproves a common theory, this must be taught in schools. Spreading false information through our curriculum is the one thing we must avoid at all costs. Another issue with relying on a single curriculum for a long time is the changing needs of the new world. Different skills are in demand nowadays, such as digital marketing and financial literacy for every single person that stretches beyond simple budgeting. These skills are rarely taught, and if they are, they are not emphasized upon enough.

Lastly, the lack of change in our curriculum could actually be the reason for the depreciating value of our degrees. High school diplomas and even Bachelor Degrees now no longer hold the academic or societal value that they once did. In earlier years, a high school diploma could make you financially stable, whereas nowadays, people even with higher degrees are struggling. Even entry-level jobs now ask for higher secondary education. If we created a curriculum that was more relevant to today’s job market, the value of a degree would increase again, as more people could get by with a high school diploma, and post-secondary became reserved once again for more research and academic incentives, rather than job-training.

Having a stable curriculum builds a foundation for schools to follow, and therefore help with building better opportunities for the coming generations.

Works Cited

Gill, Jordan. “Repeating history: Some educators say New Brunswick curriculum is failing students.” CBC, 4 July 2021, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/repeating-history-educators-historians-1.6088036. Accessed 23 February 2023.

Romero, Diego. “Alberta curriculum: Province to implement new curriculum in 3 phases.” CTV News Edmonton, 13 April 2022, https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/alberta-announces-3-phases-for-curriculum-rollout-as-criticism-continues-1.5860077. Accessed 23 February 2023.

Rushowy, Kristin. “Ontario curriculum, textbooks outdated in many subject areas, auditor general finds.” The Toronto Star, 7 December 2020, https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2020/12/07/ontario-curriculum-textbooks-outdated-in-many-subject-areas-auditor-general-finds.html. Accessed 23 February 2023.