Challenges Of Teachers In Implementing Competency-based Curriculum In Sri Lankan Secondary Schools

This study mainly aims to investigate the teachers' challenges in implementing competency based curriculum in Sri Lankan secondary schools and their suggestions to overcome those challenges With regard to the purpose of the study,it employed a qualitative research approach which used to collect the required information through interviews,non-participant observations and document review.The sample of this study consist with sixteen teachers who were selected randomly and purposefully four selected principals from four national schools which were situated in western province of Sri Lanka.All the participant teachers and principals who provided data to this study were in government school settings and implementing the same curriculum in the schools.The collected data were transcribed,categorized and presented in details according to the three broad research questions,under three themes and sixteen subthemes which emerged through the studyThe findings of the study revealed that teachers' awareness on competency based curriculum was limited and they don't have a deep understanding on how to implement CBC.Also,the findings highlights the following as major challenges;challenges in instructional planning related to over populated classrooms,lack of teaching aids and students' poor academic backgrounds,problems related to the textbooks and teachers guides,students were not ready to accept the student-centered approach and they were still keep their believing on teacher' s note,teachers have assigned some administrative responsibilities except teaching,and they have given documentary works as well as some office works related to the principal's office due to the lack of clerks,teachers were not trained properly regarding the changes of the CBC,the formative assessments which are conducted by the schools are mostly on knowledge based and the summative assessments conducted by DOE showed a progress on the ideals of CBC,there has not an adequate relationship between the teachers and NIE,less coordination between curriculum implementers(teachers)and curriculum monitors and evaluators(education directors),shortage of teaching and learning resources,lack of monitoring and evaluation process from the officials and a gap between MOE,NIE,DEP and DOE activities which are taken by themThe possible solutions suggested by the teachers according to the findings were;teachers needed motivation and high priority not only by the words,they should provide promotions,incentives and salary increments.Current text books and teacher instructional manuals needed to be replaced with a high quality,they needed to get more teaching resources such as well-equipped classrooms,laboratories,multimedia equipment and ICT facilities,they needed training through in-service training programs,seminars or further education workshops and teachers are required to have more opportunities to participate in design and formulate the curriculum properly.Also it was recommended to ministry of education should provide quality relevant teaching and learning resources to enhance the quality of education and competency based curriculum.However,it was revealed that some of the participants also try some efforts to overcome those challenges such as searching information from internet,reading various sources,cooperating and sharing things with other teachers etc.