common objectives specify the knowledge and skills of students that teaching should lead to however while the common objectives provide descriptions of how objectives can be reached and while schools have to include learning and achievements targets in their curricula there is no tight curriculum at the national level this is intended to help school principals teachers parents students and school boards to better understand the objectives so they can be an active partner in the learning process and to assist schools and teachers to move towards a more goaloriented approach to teaching and learning houlberg et al