Rationale for the curriculum

Nationwide need assessment survey was conducted using questionnaire and interview with employers, alumina, students, and staff members of higher learning institutions. The aim of the survey was to make use of the collected feed back in designing relevant curricula for the B.Sc. program in chemistry.

The need assessment revealed that the following were major problems that need to be addressed to make the quality of the graduates to the level expected.

According to the result of the survey, graduates of the old curriculum of chemistry display:

•  Insufficient knowledge of chemistry,
•  Insufficient practical skills
•  Poor communicative skills
•  Poor desire for team work

Similarly, incoming students exhibit

•  Insufficient basic subject matter knowledge
•  Poor language proficiency
•  Poor comprehensive skills (critical thinking and analytical skills) etc.

The mode of delivery was described as being characterized by

•  Non interactive teaching methods
•  Uneven coverage of content and allocated credit hours
•  Lack of relevant teaching materials
•  Lack of tailored supportive courses
•  Lack of formative assessment etc

External factors that contributed to the perceived problems included:

•  Less  emphasis was given for science subjects in the university entrance examination
•  Lack  of interface between preparatory program and university
•  Unavailability of institution to produce laboratory technicians
•  Mismatch between laboratory groups and existing facilities

The need for proposing the new B.Sc. curriculum is therefore to address problems from the following sides:

•  Students
•  Stakeholders need
•  Delivery
•  Assessment.

The result of the need assessment and the fact that chemistry is changing in its

·         Interaction with other disciplines

·         Increasingly complex problems

·         More advanced techniques and instrumentation

·         Working in a global context

and education is changing

·         to reflect new research in how students learn (e.g., inquiry-based and active learning, team experiences)

• because student population is becoming more diverse by age, gender, ethnicity and educational background have dictated the urgent need to design a fitting curriculum which ensures production of quality graduates capable of satisfying the stakeholders’ requirements.