NEW curricula will be introduced for the two uppermost grades of public school starting in the 2008-2009 academic year, said U Bo Win, the director general of Department of Education Planning and Training under the Ministry of Education.

He said the new curricula for the top two grades – known as 9th and 10th standard – will include updated information and will focus on developing critical thinking and knowledge application skills.

“We started researching ways to revise the curricula in 2006 for all subjects to reflect the development of the information age,” U Bo Win said in Nay Pyi Taw on February 10.

He said changes will include replacing old written material with contemporary fiction and new articles for Myanmar language elective courses.

“We have also added new classes in English speaking and grammar to help develop the students’ foreign language skills,” he said.

Short biographies of famous scientists have been added to physics lessons, chemistry students will study an updated periodic table and geography students will have more opportunities to learn in the field, he said.

“History materials have been updated, including adding more information about ASEAN, and economics subjects have been updated with new numbers and facts,” U Bo Win.

To prepare for the change, trainers around the country will be given classes on how to teach the new curricula, said U Tun Hla, the deputy director general of the Department of Education Planning and Training.

Training for English, math, physics, chemistry and biology will be conducted at universities and colleges around the country from March 23 to 29, while training for Myanmar language, history and geography will be held from late March to early April.

The trainers will give courses on the new curricula for all high school teachers early in the 2008-2009 academic year, with an estimated 18,000 to receive training, U Tun Hla said.

Major overhauls of the public school curricula have occurred in 1981-1982, 1994-1995 and 2000-2001.