National Curriculum

National curriculum is a public representation of what are considered the purposes of education at a national level, and it serves as a documented map of theories, common beliefs, and ideas about schooling, teaching and learning, and knowledge—evidence in the development of teacher-proof curriculum. National curriculum is generally developed and mandated by a national jurisdiction to provide the same basic education to all students mainly in public schools across a country. National curricula commonly establish national standards for the performance of all students in the subjects they include. They mostly incorporate overarching legal statements that outline how teachers can modify, as necessary, curriculum programs of study to provide all schoolchildren with relevant information at main key stages.

Many developing countries and countries in transition to market economies have a highly centralized education and state-mandated national curriculum. The main argument of proponents of a national curriculum in these countries is that there is need to promote greater uniformity across education systems to help students required to transfer across regional boundaries. Another argument is based on the economic rationale that nationwide curriculum promotes financial effectiveness through the sharing of limited resources across systems, such as curriculum materials and curriculum development. Furthermore, the proponents argue that a national curriculum concerned with teaching all groups a common language, cultural heritage, and set of common values is a major instrument to develop a sense of national identity. For them, decentralization of curricula development will work against this aspiration.

Until the 1960s, the United States had decentralized but remarkably similar curriculum identities in many individual states, confining their curriculum development to visits by key officials organized to exchange information and ideas. At the beginning of 1970s, the centralized administration of each state began to ensure that there was uniformity of provision across the state boundaries to provide the same basic education to all children within the state. This rationale of establishing commonality of official curricula across state boundaries—so that students who move to another school district or even to another state are not disadvantaged—has been a recurring matter since the early 1970s. Furthermore, the ideal of U.S. common curriculum was charged with teaching future U.S. citizens a common language, a code of [Page 601]conduct, shared values, and common ideals while providing the same experiences, the same curriculum, and the same opportunities to all students.

After the Education Reform Act 1988, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland developed their nationwide curriculum for primary and secondary state schools to ensure that state schools of all local education authorities have a common curriculum, which secures an entitlement to an equal education for all citizens. However, opponents note that the largely centralized production of these “official” national texts has resulted in a codified curriculum producing a new social order reflective of dominant groups.

During the 1990s and early 21st century, many developing countries began to initiate the process of decentralization of curriculum development and of localization of curricula in national and local specific contexts in view of ensuring greater responsiveness to local needs and realities. Today in many of these countries, there have been pressures from regionally based ethnic and language groups to develop their own curricula, teach in their own languages, and administer their own schools. In Spain, for example, initially the Basque and Catalan regions gained the right to manage their own educational systems and develop their culturally responsive curricula, followed later by other regions.

...