5 key things you need to know about the new GES Curriculum
Beginning next Academic year, the Ghana Education Service (GES) will roll out a new curriculum for basic schools in Ghana.
The new curriculum which has been prepared to replace the current one was launched by the Director-General of the Service, Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, on Thursday, April 11 this year.
According to the GES, the new curriculum which is a standard-based type will ensure that students learn by developing at their own potential and pace unlike the existing objective-based type which put students in some kind of competition due to the mode of assessment.
After the launch, teachers have been trained in 26 educational districts in the country to understand and use the new curriculum effectively to the benefit of students.
But moving away from poor food for teachers at the training, how well do you know the components of the curriculum? Well, here are five important things that we at The Ghana Report think you should know about:
1. No examination for certain classes
Beginning next Academic Year, students in P1, P3, P5 and JHS 1 will no longer write exams. There will however be national assessments for P2, P4 and P6 to track the performance of students. With this, pupils across the country will take a standardized test.
2. History of Ghana will be compulsory
The new curriculum will make room for the history of Ghana to be taught from Primary 1 to Primary 6. It is actually compulsory.
3. Inclusion of a one-hour extra curricular activity
Extra curricular activities which include talks, seminars, club meetings and activities will be reinforced. This is to help broaden the scope of learning for pupils outside the classroom.
4. Exclusion of certain topics
Because the new curriculum seeks to make students get more out of every subject, the number of subjects will not be changed. However, there will be fewer concepts and more in-depth treatment of concepts in each subject. An example of a topic that has been eliminated is ‘The Life Cycle of Okro’ for Primary 6 pupils.
5. French to be introduced at Upper Primary
Pupils in lower primary will no longer be bothered about learning French again. The subject will be introduced at Upper Primary level, that is from Primary 4 to Primary 6.
The 2019/2020 Academic Year starts from the first week of September. All schools in the country are expected to start implementing the new curriculum.