The Ghana Education Service (GES) is set to deploy guidance and counselling personnel to Junior High and Senior High Schools to prepare and educate students ahead of the full rollout of the new curriculum for secondary education in the country.
A more flexible and individualized learning environment will be offered to SHS students with the introduction of the new standard-based curriculum in the upcoming academic year.
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) Director General, Prof. Edward Appiah, stated that plans are far advanced in an interview with JoyNews’ Emefa Apawu on The Probe.
“All of GES’s guidance and counselling personnel who work in classrooms are being relocated. They will now concentrate on these initiatives and have offices in the schools to assist the children. The teachers will, of course, assist with it as well.
“We want to even start from JHS 3 so that the children going to SHS 1 will at least have an idea,” he said.
Speaking on the availability of teaching and learning materials for the curriculum, Prof. Appiah assured the materials would be made available before full implementation.
“NaCCA, our mandate is to assess and approve textbooks, we don’t develop textbooks. However, knowing that this is a new curriculum, we had to develop resource materials for the schools and the learners.
“We want to even start from JHS 3 so that the children going to SHS 1 will at least have an idea,” he said.
Speaking on the availability of teaching and learning materials for the curriculum, Prof. Appiah assured the materials would be made available before full implementation.
“NaCCA, our mandate is to assess and approve textbooks, we don’t develop textbooks. However, knowing that this is a new curriculum, we had to develop resource materials for the schools and the learners.
“For the teachers, we are done. I have told you about the teacher manual. So each manual for each subject,” he explained.
Background
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) recently launched a manual for teachers in Ghana in preparation for the rollout of the new standard-based curriculum for Senior High Schools.
On Tuesday, May 21, 2024, at Yaa Asantewaa Girls Senior High School in the Kwadaso Municipality of the Ashanti Region, the manual was officially launched by Professor Edward Appiah, Director General of NaCCA.
Prior to the publication of the manual, NaCCA disclosed that senior high school students will be able to take courses relating to both the arts and sciences concurrently under the new curriculum. The goal of this development is to provide students the freedom to choose any subject they want at higher education levels.
According to NaCCA, unlike the old curriculum, where arts students were not permitted to learn major aspects of science, the new curriculum removes such barriers, providing SHS students with more comprehensive educational opportunities.
The media was taken through every facet of the new SHS curriculum by NaCCA resource personnel throughout the engagement. Mr. Reginald Quartey underlined that values and social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties will be the main topics of the new Senior High School Curriculum. Education, he said, should enable people to make meaningful contributions to society.
Subject combination
In addition, NaCCA revealed that, based on their areas of strength, students will be able to select a minimum of seven and a maximum of nine subjects from the new curriculum. However, gifted students have the option to enrol in more than nine topics. For grammar, STEM, and technical schools around the nation, the curriculum has been developed.