Managing the curriculum shift in rural primary schools of Nyimba district in Eastern province.

The study attempted to establish how the curriculum shift was being managed in rural primary schools as well as find the challenges faced. It further, made suggestions for improvement to curriculum shift to enhance attainment of objectives of the curriculum. The study was conducted in Nyimba district of Eastern province at eight selected rural primary schools. The sample size consisted of eight school managers and 40 class teachers making a total of 48 participants. The study was descriptive qualitative in nature. The school managers were purposefully selected and responded to one-on-one semi-structured interviews while the class teachers were randomly selected and responded using focus group discussions.
The study showed that the management of the new curriculum in rural primary schools was poor due to a number of challenges which included inadequate teaching/learning materials, inadequate funding by government, inadequate capacity building towards the curriculum shift, inadequate teachers and classrooms. To address the challenges of the curriculum shift in rural primary schools, recommendations included that the government through the ministry of education supply relevant teaching/learning materials, increase funding to primary schools in the face of free primary education, increase capacity building for both school managers and class teachers. Other recommendations were increase recruitment of teachers and classrooms in rural primary schools.