News & Event

The International Series of English Curricula Project for Grades 1-4, which the Ministry of Education has begun implementing in primary schools, represents a step towards developing students’ English language skills at an early stage, facilitating their interaction with the outside world, and contributing to enhancing their linguistic and communicative abilities and building an educated and qualified generation in an era characterized by rapid and accelerating changes in the field of education. To shed light on this project, a number of educators spoke about the project’s objectives, features, components, impact on student learning, and the teaching methods used.

HE Prof. Abdullah bin Khamis Ambosaidi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education for Education, said: “Given the importance of the English language in this era as the language of international communication and the language of science and technology, the Ministry of Education pays clear attention to this language through the efforts it makes to overcome the difficulties facing its teaching and learning. The Ministry has decided to develop the curricula of the English language in government schools to keep pace with the modern curriculum industry, which relies on building or harmonizing a series of educational curricula based on the latest technical specifications and according to the best theories and methods of teaching and learning the subject, that global publishing houses have produced by employing their human resources with technical and educational competence and expertise. Therefore, we seek to benefit scientifically and methodologically from the expertise of these houses in preparing English language curricula.”

HE mentioned the objectives of implementing the International Chains Project, explaining that it seeks to raise the level of educational standards in the field of the English language in order to achieve the objectives of the education policy in the Sultanate of Oman in accordance with Oman Vision 2040. It enables school graduates to join higher education institutions without undergoing foundation year programs and provides students with future skills that help them practice their daily lives and enable them to engage in the labor market. The project also keeps pace with the rapid developments and changes in English language teaching methods, especially after the cognitive and technological inflation in the field of education and learning.

Dr. Sana bint Salem Al-Sinani, Assistant Director-General for Curricula at the Directorate-General of Curriculum Development, explained that the project is being implemented in three main phases, with each phase covering four grades. The first phase includes grades (1-4) during the years (2022-2024) for two academic years. The second phase includes grades (5-8) during the years (2024-2026) for two academic years. The third phase includes grades (9-12) during the years (2026-2029) for three academic years.

Dr. Sanaa pointed out the features of the International Series applied for grades (1-4), as it consists of four levels that aim to develop the language in addition to future readiness skills through topics appropriate for students' ages, attractive and enjoyable activities, and educational videos for stories and various activities. She said: “The series includes interactive electronic versions of the textbooks to allow students to learn remotely whenever necessary, and also allows both teachers and students to access the curriculum from anywhere, which ensures the continuity of learning regardless of the circumstances (exceptional climate conditions, for example). The curricula also include a number of integrated multimedia and interactive activities, and various learning styles, which makes education more attractive and effective. The series provides the application of a new curriculum for teaching phonetics and spelling, as a special book on sounds has been written that contains stories, videos, and linguistic vocabulary specific to each sound.”

Salem Al Kharousi, Director of the Humanities Curriculum Development Department at the Directorate-General of Curriculum Development, said: “The series includes a number of supporting and auxiliary components and resources that contribute to students’ acquisition of English language skills, including: the teacher’s guide, the student’s book, and the book of various activities, which develop various future skills and enhance different human values. The student’s book includes a set of supporting educational stories and audio materials, as it provides age-appropriate reading materials that are compatible with their levels of language proficiency, and enhances the love of reading while gradually building vocabulary learning and reading comprehension skills, in addition to the book of sounds and spelling that keeps pace with modern developments in the field of language learning, as it is concerned with learning the sounds that the student later assembles to form words, not the names of the letters that are taught in the alphabet.”

Azza Al Riyami, Head of the Foreign Languages ​​Curricula Department, said that the curriculum support tools in the project include educational pieces, audio, training activities and printing activities. She explained that they provide an interactive educational experience that takes students away from the daily classroom routine and works to enrich the classroom environment, making learning more exciting and realistic. She pointed out that all these tools and supporting materials are uploaded on the Ministry’s educational portal, and these components work together to create a strong and comprehensive educational framework that addresses various learning styles and needs, thus supporting students effectively in order to create an effective and attractive learning environment that helps raise the student’s linguistic and academic level in the English language.

On the project’s sponsor part, Dina Al Khalili, General Manager of Al Jisr Charitable Foundation, said: “The Foundation’s support for the development of English language series comes to align students’ outcomes with the requirements of the labor market in light of the rapid changes and technological developments. The project is a qualitative leap in the field of developing English language curricula in the Sultanate, hoping that through it our students will benefit scientifically, practically and cognitively. The Foundation aspires for the curriculum development project to be a model of partnership and integration of roles between the government and civil society, embodying Oman’s future vision 2040.”

From her part, Supervisor Maryam Al-Souti from the Educational Supervision Department at Muscat Governorate said: “Through classroom visits, it was noted that the series curricula contributed to raising the level of students’ performance in basic skills (reading and writing) in the English language subject, and made a difference in students’ use of linguistic vocabulary in their daily life situations, so that students became able to construct correct sentences from the first grade. It also contributed to enhancing twenty-first century skills, especially communication skills, critical thinking, and innovation.”

As for the teacher Kawthar Al-Harthi from Al-Ula Primary School (1-4), she stressed that the series curricula provided diverse texts and activities, which gave students the opportunity to learn about different global cultures, which can enhance their understanding of the language in global contexts. The international curricula focus on teamwork and interaction between students, which contributes to building a dynamic educational environment, and contains digital resources, which makes learning more exciting for children at this age. In general, applying the international series curricula for the English language in the first cycle can provide strong and advanced educational opportunities for students, and the success of this application depends on the readiness of the school and teachers to implement these curricula effectively.