The Ministry of Education will implement a new curriculum next year, which incorporates socio-emotional content, entrepreneurship, and artificial intelligence, confirmed Isis Núñez, National Director of Curriculum and Educational Technology of Meduca.
The curriculum is being developed by a national innovation and updating team that includes teachers, principals, national and regional supervisors, and civil society, who were invited to participate in 2024. Núñez added that the entire work of the educational community will be implemented in 2026, so relevant training for school principals will be held from January 19th to 23rd, and for teachers during the first two weeks of February.
"Many people participated in the process to diagnose and identify the needs of our students for their training, and we began by updating the curriculum, which involves reviewing the content of all 276 high school subjects implemented nationwide," the official stated.
Núñez noted that the curriculum redesign, spanning from preschool to twelfth grade, is a highly technical process that began in 2025. According to Núñez, socio-emotional content, entrepreneurship, and artificial intelligence were elements that had long been demanded. However, the official clarified that methodological strategies have also been incorporated, "because it is useless to have an updated curriculum if the teacher maintains the same methodology."
Núñez reported that during the process, diagnoses from PISA, ERCE, and CRECE tests, as well as other international and national assessments, were reviewed. Among the urgent needs identified was the need "to maintain this team so that the entire educational community sees and feels the need to keep the curriculum updated."
There are 28 high schools in Panama, and according to Núñez, in 2014, during the first term of Lucy Molinar as head of Meduca, 16 of them were left, including the Juan Demóstenes Arosemena School, which offers a Bilingual Pedagogical program. After that, new educational offerings were created at the secondary education level. In this regard, she recalled that the world is changing, and the business, productive, and academic sectors require students to have comprehensive training.
