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Amosun S.L.1
1University of Cape Town, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Cape Town, South Africa
Background: The 2010 Lancet's Global Independent Commission on Education of Health Professionals for the 21st century advocated that there should be changes in the educational preparation of healthcare professionals as existing training strategies seemed inadequate in addressing the inequities in health.1 The World Health Organisation (WHO) also provided guiding principles for transforming and scaling up health professional's education and training,2 to ensure that graduates become change agents who are socially accountable. The World Congress of Physical Therapy (WCPT) developed five international guidelines for entry level physiotherapy education,3 and three key elements were identified in designing the curriculum, namely the content or knowledge base, students' learning process, and the socio-cultural context in which physiotherapy is experienced and practised.4-7 Acknowledging that physiotherapy education takes place in very diverse social, economic and political environments, the history of physiotherapy education globally portrayed the influence of colonial masters on physiotherapy practice and education in Africa,3 which seems to continue in postcolonial era. The first of four steps in decolonising a curriculum is to start probing issues relating to coloniality while attempting to strike a balance between global and local interests in determining the relevance of what is taught.8 The call for transformative health professional education becomes critical for a continent still experiencing a high burden of disease and inequities in health.1 With the increasing number of physiotherapy education programs in Africa due to the dire need for physiotherapists, and attempts to meet standards prescribed by WCPT, what is explicit in the curriculum content that would sensitise students to the contexts of the continent?
Purpose: Firstly to explore if curriculum design of entry-level physiotherapy in Africa explicitly addressed the social, economic, and political challenges in the continent. Secondly to explore if the designed curriculum aligns with WHO's recommendation for transforming health professions education.
Methods: Electronic searches of English language databases were carried out to locate literature on the curricula design of physiotherapy education in Africa from 2011 to July 2016.
Results: Only two articles9,10 on curricula design were identified though there are about fifteen African countries offering entry-level physiotherapy education. Though there are differences in the duration of the program and the sequencing of the courses in the African countries referred to in the two articles, the curricula design was geared towards what was considered appropriate by the countries providing the assistance, and focused mostly on content that reinforces the traditional role of attempting to cure disease once it has occurred. There was no indication that the WHO recommendations for a transformative education2 were addressed.
Conclusion(s): Literature on curriculum design in physiotherapy education in Africa is scares. The curriculum is still patterned on those from Western countries with an orientation towards cure. Educators should initiate processes to decolonise the curriculum by giving opportunity to students to interrogate their contexts.
Implications: Educators should ensure that the curriculum of entry-level physiotherapy education in Africa meets societal needs.
Funding acknowledgements: None
Topic: Education
Ethics approval: Not required
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
