Educational reform in the sultanate of Oman towards achieving qualitative internal efficiency of basic education cycle 2 system
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Date
2010
Authors
Al-Hajri, Salim Mohammed Amur
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Abstract
The main issue of this study was on the educational reform and how it was leading
towards efficiency particularly internal efficiency of the Omani education system. Much
has been done by so many people and a lot of money has been spent to reform the
system over last fm1y years. These inputs of educational reform (finance, activities and
time) have accumulated over time to serve the present system. However, the question
was whether accumulated inputs contributed towards the effectiveness and efficiency of
the system. The main objectives of this study were to examine the educational refmm in
Oman with a view towards identifying internal efficiency of the Basic Education Cycle
2 in the Sultanate of Oman. Specifically it investigated the educational refonn in the
Omani Educational System and examined whether this reform could lead to internal
efficiency of the system by systematically examining the internal processing of the
inputs. The study employed a combination of quantitative and qualitative method
research techniques to gather and analyzed data. Questionnaire analysis, focus group
and personal interviews were used to collect numerical and qualitative data. The
conceptual framework was based on Lunenburg and Ornstein's (2000) proposal, which
in tum came from the Open Systems Theory. This framework led to the research design
of the study. This was clone to ensure the reliability and validity of the data gathered.
The study and data collection were focused around the Educational Refonn in Oman
and how the movement affected inputs and outputs of the education system and its
Iutcmal Processing System. The stuciy found out that on the surface it looked like a
tremendous amount of quality inputs were put in place in the new system. However the
input of physical facilities such as locally produced textbooks do not necessarily make
them better materials, computer facilities are good but they need constant upgrading as
they become obsolete rather quickly and internet facilities and connections must also be
included. A new curriculum that !s in line with global trends was good but it was not
based on needs and ability of students and teachers. Nonetheless in situation such as this
we would have expected practicing teachers to be retrained to implement the new
curriculum. It was important for the policy makers to realize that teachers and students
must be comfm1able with the new assessment system to avoid anxiety and stress among
them. New subjects must not be added indiscriminately because it could lead to
overload and more stress among students. Reduction of class size was a good move;
however it did not lead to new approaches. The introduction of co-education was in line
with western world but did not go down well with the local culture. After detail analysis
was conducted it was found that excellent inputs do not result in quality output
especially in the intangible outputs. This study found that the individual components
(input, process and output) lack synchronization and harmonization and the constituents
of the process components are not working for each other and sometimes work against
each other. In short there were signs to suggest that the level of internal efficiency were
still could be more improved. The good news was it has the potential to perform better
if the shotifalls in the input and processing systems were given due consideration.
Currently the refmms being made were pushing for efficiency including internal
efficiency but the rate of movement towards gaining meaningful internal efficiency was
rather slow.