THE RENEWAL OF GENERAL CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK: WHERE ARE WE MOVING TOWARDS?

The need to update the curriculum and the Curriculum framework of general education has been discussed for several years, as long as a year ago, the renewal work of primary and basic education curriculum began, and this year the renewal of the secondary and preschool education curriculum started. The curriculum of the general preschool education is described for one year, with the possibility for the child to study for the second year. The preschool education programme is not structured in separate subjects – the knowledge is acquired integrally, by developing seven competencies in all activities in which the child participates, in order to ensure the balance and coherence of all competencies in different content areas. Excluded content areas are given equal volume. It is being focused on the purpose and goals of preschool education, areas of achievement and intended achievements. The learning content is divided into five areas of learning content: • language education; • social education; • STEM education(natural science, mathematics and informatics, technological education); • health and physical education; • artistic education. The general curricula for pre-primary, primary, basic and secondary education must ensure vertical and horizontal coherence of content, possible interdisciplinary links, and indicate how they can be meaningfully disclosed including the interdisciplinary topics set out in the General curriculum framework updating guidelines: • personal power, • cultural identity and community spirit, • sustainable development. The volumes of primary, basic and secondary education curricula are presented distinguishing between compulsory subject content (about 70 per cent) and optional content (about 30 per cent), which is selected and modelled by the teacher himself, taking into account school, classroom context, student needs, achievements, possibilities and in coordination with other teachers as required. When implementing optional content, more time is devoted to the development of certain skills, values, and learning of subject topics. Project works can be organised, interdisciplinary themes can be developed, time can be allocated for cognitive, cultural, artistic, and creative activities. According to the concept of the Guidelines for the Renewal of the General Curriculum Framework, this distribution of the content ratio is focused on deeper learning, integration, topic development, competence development.