Curriculum's vision 'to reach more schools'

The implementation of the national curriculum is the responsibility of anyone who has education at heart, Education Minister Louis Galea said yesterday.

The minister said developments were expected during the coming year to help extend the curriculum's vision to more schools and classrooms.

"The government wants the very good quality which we have in some schools to be extended to others which are facing particular challenges, some of them difficult," he said.

Speaking during a visit to the national curriculum centre, which opened two years ago, Dr Galea said although there was a lot more to be done to reach the aims of the curriculum, a lot of work to improve the quality of education had been done in the past years.

Dr Galea described as positive the creation of school development plans, which he said should permit groups of schools to adopt a curriculum according to the specific needs of their students.

The centre is the seat of the National Curriculum Council, set up in March 2001 as part of the reform process brought about by the new curriculum. The council's aim is to guide, survey and analyse the implementation of the curriculum. It also analyses and verifies the quality and standards of education in schools.