With the world becoming more and more of a global village, education systems should aim to equip learners with 21st Century skills that enable them to be versatile and adaptable to any economy. At the same time, learners should master innovative skills to enable them to solve real life problems. Figure 1 shows a broad curriculum framework course developers and teachers can draw on to develop a rich curriculum for open schooling.

Figure 1 Source: Fadel & Velaga, (2019) CC BY-SA 4.0

The flexibility of provision in open schools accommodates learners of different ages, interests and needs. Often, there are learners who enrol in open schooling just to acquire specific skills and competencies that make them more marketable or functional in the job market. In addition to purely secondary school subjects similar to those offered in conventional schools, these learners need vocational-type courses to master the skills they need. Ideally, the vocational/technical courses are short and either involve work attachments or target people who are already in employment. These vocational courses tend to be popular with youths who are self-employed, like plumbers, electricians, painters, etc. For example, the Namibian College of Open Learning offers the following courses up to Level 3 on the Namibia Qualifications Framework: Automotive Mechanics, Plumbing and Pipefitting, Welding and Metal Fabrication and Office Administration, (Nitschke, 2013) . A good open schooling curriculum should achieve a balance between a purely academic track and a vocational and skills development track. In many developing economies, such medium-level skills are essential in making young people more employable thereby reducing the problem of youth unemployment. That is what promotes sustainable livelihoods and improves living conditions of communities.

Learning activity 1

Discuss the following questions. Post your responses on the discussion forum on QA4ODFL2 Discourse site.

1. Think of the youths in your context and list their characteristics in terms of their life needs. List these needs on paper and discuss with your colleague who is also a teacher, or someone working in education. You can also consult employment survey reports from the relevant government ministry in your country, like the Ministry of Labour, to understand skills gaps in the economy.
2. Draw up a list of suggested offerings for open schooling in your country based on the identified needs of youth and on skills gaps identified.
3. Share your list in the chat forum, and read the lists of other students. Are there needs that you want to add to your list?

Click here to post your thoughts

Reflection

When you design curriculum for open schools, think of the unique target population and how it differs from traditional school learners. You aim to embrace differences and accommodate the varied needs of youths in your context by offering a wide range of theoretical and vocational and professional courses. Think of the different needs of open school learners in your context and suggest vocational and professional courses that can be included in the curriculum. You can share your suggested courses with a colleague.

You don’t have to start from scratch. You can make your life easier by finding and using already existing courses that are openly licensed, and adapting them for your context. As teachers and education officers, you can also publish your courses as OER to enable other people to access and use them. In addition to looking for existing courses, you can search for learning materials to support courses you already have. Your ability to search for and adapt OER will be very useful to you. Let’s build a community of sharing in open schooling. To learn about how to search for and adapt OER, read the short tutorials on the following links during your own time:

Finding OER: (https://www.oerafrica.org/communication/find-open-content/index.html#/ )

Adapting OER: ([ https://www.oerafrica.org/communication/adapt-new-content/#/ https://www.oerafrica.org/communication/adapt-new-content/#/ ])

Although open schooling offers vocational and skills training, the level of skills is generally not the high-level specialised type, unless the offerings are developed from certificate to Diploma and degree level. Most Certificate qualifications offer low to middle-level skills that nevertheless enable holders to offer basic services in the economy, as highlighted above. This makes articulation with higher qualifications offered by other institutions like technical colleges and universities essential. So, in designing the open schooling curriculum, you should consider advancement pathways that your learners will pursue. The nature of such articulation can either be vertical or horizontal. The guiding principle is that offerings should not result in learners running into a dead end.

Articulation of open schooling qualifications means locating offerings appropriately within the National Qualifications Framework. Even if the offerings are short courses, they should be designed in such a way that they can contribute towards credit accumulation. In many countries, education institutions now design regular micro-credential courses as a way of supporting skills/competencies development. Accumulation of such micro-credentials leads to a formal certificate being issued by a registered institution. Many people prefer to take these micro-credential courses because they are short and offer knowledge and skills that are of immediate use at the workplace.

Learning activity 2

Discuss the following questions. Post your responses on the discussion forum on QA4ODFL2 Discourse site.

1. Think of your curriculum and the way you operationalise it as an educator/teacher.
2. What strategies do you use to ensure that your learners master 21st Century skills highlighted in Figure 1 above?
3. Post your answer in the discussion forum and read posts by your peers as well.

Click here to post your thoughts

Besides the rapid economic changes the world is experiencing, there are many challenges that are being brought about by climatic changes. These challenges are exacerbated by pandemics that pose threats to human life as well as to education systems. Unusual heat waves, devastating floods, severe droughts, volcanic ash and tsunamis have resulted in adverse conditions that have threatened the welfare of human beings in general and tested the resilience of education systems. For example, when COVID-19 hit all forms of business and day to day human activities were negatively affected by restrictions to movement and gatherings, which resulted in the closure of education institutions. Innovative ways of sustaining education were called for and this demonstrated the importance of not only designing for different type of learners, but also for the different conditions under which learning takes place.

Learning activity 3

Read the following article from the Sundaily, which describes a natural disaster that hit Vanuatu recently.

Vanuatu struck by natural disaster

PORT VILA, VANUATU: Vanuatu declared a state of emergency Friday after back-to-back earthquakes struck as a second cyclone in as many days lashed the Pacific nation. The 6.5-magnitude first quake struck at 1804 GMT off the island of Espiritu Santo in the north of the archipelago at a depth of 10 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said. An aftershock with a magnitude of 5.4 rocked the island shortly after. … With Cyclone Kevin also raging, the government declared a state of emergency. When the earthquakes struck Friday, locals were hunkering down as fierce winds from the cyclone tore roofs from buildings and uprooted trees. … Torrential rain had flooded roads while electricity and communications were affected across the island nation, home to 320,000.
(News clip adapted from the Sundaily, July 18, 2023)

Reflect on the above Vanuatu scenario. Post your answers to the following questions in the discussion forum. Also, read what your peers post.

1. How does such a disaster disrupt learning?
2. As a teacher, how would you design teaching and learning to minimise disruptions in learning?

Click here to post your thoughts

Reflection

Teachers and education planners alike need to understand learning as an activity that can happen in a wide range of conditions, not just within a conventional school setting. Thinking out of the box allows for planning education systems and designing learning that is more resilient. It also motivates people to be more innovative in terms overcoming challenges that are faced, be they a result of adverse weather conditions or natural disasters or the geography of an area. Perhaps the ideas you have read from other students can apply to your context too.
Let’s explore this a bit more in the next activity.

Learning activity 4

Click on the following link and read about a typical example of innovative ways of ensuring that learning continues taking place even under adverse climatic conditions: (https://shidhulai.org/) .

1. How do the learning conditions in the Bangladesh case differ from learning conditions in your context?
2. In your view, what additional responsibilities would a teacher in the Bangladesh case have?
3. If you were a curriculum developer in Bangladesh, what are the core learning areas you would include in the secondary school curriculum?
4. Share your ideas/answers to the questions above in the discussion forum.

Click here to post your thoughts

Curriculum should be relevant to learners’ living experiences to make learning authentic. There is no point in learning what is not relevant for life. So, both the content and the methods of teaching and learning should prepare learners to use the knowledge and skills learnt to solve real life problems. Threats to human life that are caused by increasing climatic changes and industrialisation need to be addressed by education systems. For example, societies in Pacific countries rely heavily on oceans for their livelihoods and yet these marine environments are some of the poorly managed ecosystems in the world. Rising marine temperatures, dumping of industrial waste, especially plastic material and over exploitation of marine resources are some of the factors that pose threats to these blue economies. According to the World Bank, blue economy refers to the sustainable exploitation of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of ocean ecosystem, (World Bank, 2017) . As the Bank argues, an important challenge of the blue economy is to understand and better manage the many aspects of oceanic sustainability, ranging from sustainable fisheries to ecosystem health to pollution, (Ibid). The need for collaboration across countries and across public-private sectors in managing such ecosystems cannot be overemphasized. “This realization underscores the challenge facing the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) as they turn to better managing their blue economies,” (World Bank, 2017:vi) .

Learning activity 5

This image shows examples of blue economy elements.

Source: World Bank, (2023) https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/infographic/2017/06/06/blue-economy

Look carefully at the picture, and identify aspects of the blue economy that are in your curriculum or that of any of the countries in the Pacific region.

1. What gaps do you think there are in your curriculum?
2. Share your ideas with your peers in the discussion forum.

Click here to post your thoughts

More reading: If you are interested in understanding more about ocean pollution and how it impacts on human life, read the article at the following link: (/ https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/wl/public/linlithgowbridgeps/uploads/sites/6448/2020/05/17203010/Plastic-Pollution-PowerPoint.pdf)

The advent of technology has ushered in new and better ways of teaching and learning. Rapid expansion in blended learning, advances in technology and digital teaching aids, and the increased availability and uptake of online distance learning are driving a need for new approaches to assessment for eLearning. Many open schooling systems have since embraced technology-enabled learning (TEL) to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. TEL signifies a shift from the traditional paper-based teaching approach to an e-tutor facilitated, self-directed, blended/online learning approach. This approach to teaching and learning provides the flexibility that accommodates non-traditional learners and therefore promotes access.
Appropriate use of TEL is driven by the teacher who seeks to draw on technology to advance a particular teaching and learning strategy. The underlying pedagogy is important; otherwise blind use of technology might not necessarily yield desired results. It is not the technology that matters, but the pedagogy that guides which technology to use and how to use it. However, if appropriately used, technology:

• Enhances convenience for students and staff;
• Promotes development of digital Literacy amongst students and staff;
• Empowers students and staff with enhanced learning environments and activities;
• Enhances engagement with content thereby supporting the development of lifelong learning skills;
• Facilitates delivering high quality, reliable, efficient, integrated, intuitive, user experience focussed solutions and support.

Learning activity 6

Discuss the following questions. Post your responses on the discussion forum on QA4ODFL2 Discourse site.

1. List some of the challenges you are likely to face in using available technologies for teaching and learning. How would you alleviate those challenges?
2. Share one or two challenges in the chat forum with your peers.

Click here to post your thoughts

Reflection

Table 1 gives some possible challenges that are associated with common technologies used in teaching and learning. Compare the challenges you gave in Activity 6 with what is in the table.

Table 1: Common challenges faced in using different types of technology in teaching and learning

To keep the content of your courses relevant, there is need for constant reviewing and updating. This is particularly important given that technologies change rapidly, so do the kind of challenges that learners face in the world of work. Regular scanning of the environment is necessary to keep abreast with these changes. Good open schools conduct market surveys on a regular basis to find out where the need lies and decide how to revise existing offerings or even develop new ones.