Curriculum Overload Harms Learning

The large number of school books has adverse effects in students’ education. “When the curriculum is voluminous, qualitative learning is replaced by quantitative,” said teacher and education expert Mohammad Reza Niknejad.

“In Iran’s formal education system, not only are the curriculum lessons numerous, but the contents too come in big sizes. Add to this the educational aid books that bring along even more learning content,” Niknejad told IRNA. 

The so-called educational aid books don’t really help and seem “to make students more exhausted,” he said.

On several occasions, it has been noted that the school curriculum is too heavy as it is, and the educational aid books add an extra burden; many parents have objected to the aid books complaining that teachers are trying to make their own job easier.

Another problem with the educational aid books is that they include exercises belonging to higher grades. Sometimes, a junior high school student has to contend with physics exercises and formulas that are introduced in second or even third grade.

“So it seems more appropriate to teach students only the education curriculum and nothing beyond, to make lessons more understandable, agreeable and sustainable in their minds,” Niknejad added.