An evaluative study of the alignment between primary level textbooks and the national curriculum for English

This study aimed to investigate the alignment between National Curriculum for English Language (2006) and Textbooks of Primary Level. Curriculum-Textbook Alignment Rubric developed by Saeed (2014) was used to investigate the alignment between the textbooks from grade III to V and National Curriculum document. The results showed that, English textbooks of grade III, IV, V, and National curriculum (2006) were not completely aligned with each other. The SLOs listed in English textbooks were not exactly the same as listed in National curriculum i.e. some were different in wording, frequency, or missing on either side. Therefore, a specially designed table was used to examine vertical alignment and reconcile the SLOs of textbook and curriculum document. Furthermore, all SLOs and the content of the textbooks of grades III, IV, & V were lying at first and second levels of depth of knowledge of Webb alignment tool, and mainly focused on lower-order thinking skills. In view of above, it was recommended that textbook developers should incorporate the exact SLOs of National curriculum in their textbooks, strike a balance between lower and higher order thinking skills as well as try to develop textbooks in line with the curriculum document.