Valorizing the Art and Culture of Copyrighting and Intellectual Property Rights in English Curriculum Design for Secondary School Education in Burundi

Abstract

This study examined the choice and the artistic design of the contents of English textbooks for the Middle and Upper secondary Education in Burundi since the introduction of the new educational reform of 2006. Basically, the problem that this study addressed consisted in the problematic issues of the compilation of textbooks of English in terms of the techniques of referencing and citation used which, in some stages, cloud the authorship rights advocated by the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). This study aimed at creating awareness about the Intellectual Property Rights; it also looked at how the Intellectual Property Rights promote creativity and innovation particularly in the field of Curriculum designing to address the contemporary challenges of today’s world. The study collected data from English textbooks of Basic and Post-Basic schools in Burundi which can be understood as the Middle and Upper secondary schools. The collection targeted the reading texts and language structures present in the teacher’s guides and pupil’s manuals. Besides, views and considerations collected from some curriculum designers contributed significantly in the collection of relevant data for the study. Important elements such as the source of the textbooks contents and the techniques that were used by designers to compile the selected materials regarding the prescripts of Intellectual Property constituted the analytical process of the identified data. In the end, data from Post-Basic schools (Upper Secondary) revealed that much of the textbooks contents were borrowed from various sources that are either published or unpublished. In some situations, the Intellectual Property ethics were not observed, thereby creating conflict with the principles of ownership rights.