Needs Before Novelty: A Theoretical and Practical Framework for Curriculum Change in the Industry 5.0 Era
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54938/ijemdss.2026.05.3.743Keywords:
Curriculum change, Needs assessment, Industry 5.0, Human-centric education, Higher education policyAbstract
The concept of curriculum change is often interpreted as a 'new' curriculum, while the literature on curriculum theory has long held that a clear statement of need should be the basis for any curriculum change. This paper takes up the argument again at a time when the object of curricular need is changing. The paper summarises and concludes that, on the basis of the classical and contemporary theories of curriculum (Tyler, 1949; Taba, 1962; Walker, 2002; Gordon et al., 2019) and the needs-assessment tradition (Kaufman & English, 1979; Witkin & Altschuld, 1995; Altschuld & Watkins, 2014), needs assessment is not just a preliminary step to the development of a curriculum, but it is also a process that keeps theory responsive to practice. It then introduces this argument to the new discourse on Industry 5.0, which presents a different vision on the development of technology, moving from efficiency to human-centric, resilient and sustainable technologies (Nahavandi, 2019; Ivanov, 2023; Ghobakhloo et al., 2025). This provides an integrated, needs-based way to think about curriculum change, rather than a change in the skills that need to be taught in the syllabus, it would simply be a new definition of what would be considered a need. Implications are drawn for the higher education policy in developing countries such as Pakistan where changes in the school curriculum do not match the changes in the labour market and society.
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