On 25th February 2025, National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) unveiled the aligned A’level curriculum, marking a significant step in the elevation of competency-based education in Uganda. The aligned curriculum ensured that the pioneer cohort of the competency-based lower secondary curriculum (current Senior Five class) study under a similar approach at A’level, pending the completion of a more comprehensive review of the A’level Curriculum.
The alignment of the A’level curriculum with the competency-based lower secondary curriculum introduced several changes, including:
- Removal of repetitive, redundant and obsolete content.
- Elimination of overlapping content already covered at O’level.
- Reorganisation of the scope and sequence of the A’level curriculum to reflect content removal.
- A shift from teacher-centred to learner-centred pedagogies.
- Replacement of Norm-Referenced Assessment (where a learner’s performance is compared to peers) with Criterion-Referenced Assessment, which measures learner performance against a defined set of standards (knowledge, skills, attitudes and values).
In addition, the revised curriculum mainstreams cross-cutting issues such as climate change, ICT, entrepreneurship, gender, and health education, thereby linking classroom learning to real-world challenges. Importantly, the reforms provide flexible pathways that prepare learners not only for university but also for tertiary institutions, vocational training, and the world of work. As learners transition from A’level to higher education, the Ministry of Education and Sports (MOEs) has guided higher education institutions to adapt their academic programmes and teaching approaches to competency-based learning.
