International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) ISSN: 2319-7064 ResearchGate Impact Factor (2018): 0.28 | SJIF (2018): 7.426 Volume 8 Issue 4, April 2019 www.ijsr.net Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY Exploring Curriculum Implementation in Response to Labour Markets Mamosa Thaanyane 1 , Joseph Thabana 2 1, 2 Department of Language and Social Education, National University of Lesotho, P.O. Roma 180, Maseru, Lesotho Abstract: The Government of Lesotho has undertaken a number of policy initiatives in the past to improve education system to be accessible, relevant, efficient, and of the best quality. Contrary to these efforts, a gap continues to exist among curriculum, teaching, assessment and the world of work. This paper investigates the causes of the existing gap from secondary school teachers in Maseru district as implementers of curriculum. This qualitative study usedsemi-structured interviews with open-ended questions, with six teachers in Maseru district. These teachers were purposively selected to take part of the study. The results of the study revealed that the existence of the gap is due to the following factors: teachers’ experience, focus on examination, poor education system and lack of coordination between stakeholders, school characteristics, and teachers’ capacity. The results further show that teacher development in the form of workshops and teacher-refresher courses is not adequately offered to teachers. Keywords: Curriculum implementation; labour markets; education; teaching; assessment and world of work 1. Introduction The 21st-century skills are at the centre of what an education system ought to be providing as its high priority. As Lesotho is not an exceptional, itseducation system aims at preparing learners for the world of work and further studies by changing curriculum to suit the educational goal (CAP 2009). Education system needs to provide students with hands-on learning that mirrors real-world problems and work opportunities in an interdisciplinary way as those skills cannot be taught in isolation. When learners possess these skills alongside content knowledge they are more likely to be successful in the workplace as well. Today’s highly competitive job market has dramatically changed the rules for career success so much that people willing to work should meet demands of a job they are seeking (Lopez 2008). Preparing learners for the new workplace requires understanding the global economy as the new reality and finding out what businesses expect of workers in the new workplace as well as learners’ ability to apply that knowledge at work. Therefore, teachers as curriculum implementersmust ensure that learners are aware of the basic premises and workplace competencies as they pursue their educational goals and career aspirations at school. For quality of education to be guaranteed, emphasis should be placed on the quality of teaching and learning in order to ensure impressiveness, efficiency and productivity of education. So, there is a need for schools to stress the need for changing curriculum content to be relevant to the culture and learner’s needs as well as changing teaching and learning processes (UNESCO 2000).It continues to argue that teachers need to know that these skills are not taught rather modelled as they cannot be added to the curriculum with the hope that learners will learn them without the systematic planning. If teachers keep on narrowing their focusing on the cognitive skills only, the gap between education system and the world of work will still widen. This brings us to claim that the concepts of teaching and learning should not run parallel but rather jointly as they go hand-in hand at same time, that is, because theyare two activities that are bound together (Amponsah 2016). There are some researchers who claim that, learning can sometimes take place without teaching because what is taught is not necessarily learned and what is learned is not necessarily the result of teaching as some people learn from experiences. As a planned action seeking to achieve educational goals, teaching and learning should be organised in a manner that results in learners’ competence, ability to apply academic skills in a meaningful way, which also integrate career development (Utoware & Kren-Ikidi 2013). The ability to bring together theoretical-conceptual learning in the classroom and the actual application in the workplace is the essential component in learners’ making a successful transition to the world of work.Most policies encourage the use of learner-centred methods, because they allow learners to do most of the activities by themselves unlike teacher- centred where a teachers do everything for the learners while expecting them to produce and understand the same material presented to them. Even though teachers can prefer the use of learner-centred methods, change the function of content, create conducive learning environment, share power in their classrooms(Weimer 2012), the gap that exist between school and world of work still widens. There still are some challenges that hinder effective curriculum implementation which can emanate from teacher, learner and environment (Amponsah 2016). One challenge that we have seen in developing countries is lackof basic foundational skills that bridges school education to workplace. He further argues that learners are coming out of education system without them and are entering the labour market underequipped. This stresses the fact that teachers still use traditional teaching methods where they are the only expert with all knowledge to be transferred to the learner.In order to fight against the economic problem that most countries are facing, teachers have to align curriculum with assessment in such a way that it leads to development of 21st century skills in learners. Therefore, if these challenges are not addressed by the MoET, learners will leave schools having only cognitive skills which are inadequate for them to fit the world of work. Paper ID: ART20196907 10.21275/ART20196907 1537