The uncertainty about the implications of the School-Based Curriculum Development (SBCD) movement has been felt more strongly in emerging educational systems of developing countries, and mainly in those that have not yet established national curriculum development centers and in which a newly established center has not yet completed the work of producing curricula for all grade levels and school subjects. Should such educational systems establish a curriculum center, or encourage existing curriculum centers to complete the work of producing a national curriculum, or in the face of the ideas of the newly emerging counter-movement, should they delegate the work of curriculum development into the hands of communities, schools and teachers? This booklet examines issues and problems related to these dilemmas, and summarizes experience accumulated in the last two decades, both in developing and developed countries. It also examines the roles various curriculum developing agencies can successfully carry out and whether there is an adequate relation between these two types of curriculum developing bodies. It is hoped that such information may be of use to educational planners in initiating and monitoring curriculum developing activities.
