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Gap Between Actual and Official Curriculum

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The term ‘curriculum’, was derived from the Greek word ‘curere’ which literarily means ‘racecourse. As a broad concept, the term ‘curriculum’ does not have a concise or precise definition. However, it can be explained in terms of academic content as the planned interaction of learners and instructors with instructional content, materials, resources and processes for evaluating the attainment of educational objectives. Simply put, it is the set of courses, coursework and their contents offered at a school or educational and training institutions.
We have several scenarios of the usage of the term, curriculum. Some of these are official, actual, null, formal, informal, hidden, enacted, experienced and unintended curricula. Nevertheless, the concentration of this work is on the gap between the official and actual curricula.
The official curriculum is the administratively and legally documented programme of study and other aspects of school life, subject matter, skills and values that policy makers expect learners to be taught. It usually gives the basic plan of lessons to be followed, including objectives, sequence and materials. Some components of the official curriculum include the syllabus, timetable, official calendars, official list of recommended books, content and style of final and intermediate examination. Difficulties in the implementation of the official curriculum often result in what has become known as the actual curriculum. The actual or operational curriculum is the aspect of the official curriculum that is taught by the teacher and how it is communicated to the learners. This includes what the teacher teaches in class and the learning outcomes for the students.
From the explanations of the official and actual curricula above, it is clear that there is a vast gap between the two due to the

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