Teachers, parents express worry over new curriculum, uniforms
Some teachers and parents have expressed worry over the decision by the Ghana Education Service (GES) to introduce a new curricula for basic schools across the country.
The GES is also introducing new school uniforms for next academic year.
The worry stems from what they describe as the ‘little knowledge’ available on the new curriculum that the Education Ministry is seeking to introduce in the 2020/2021 academic year.
With barely two months to the commencement of the academic year, interactions with some teachers and parents on their preparedness for the next academic year proved that many were not fully set for September.
Headmaster of Mercy Hagan Academy located at Asylum Down in the capital, Cecil Quaye, for instance, expressed worry over the unavailability of materials to aid teaching regarding the introduction of a new curriculum.
According to him, there are no new books to complement school work in the coming academic year.
He blames the situation on the ‘late directives’ by the Ministry and the Ghana Education Service on the implementation date for the new curriculum.
“We heard about the introduction of the new curriculum in the news but as to when we are going to implement it, it came in not too long ago and that has affected the school in deciding which set of supplementary books to review from our publishers,” he noted.
Explaining further, the headmaster emphasized that but for the poor timing of its implementation, the new curriculum, one similar to the Cambridge Model of Education, is a good one.
“The school has had to improvise by planning to organize a training workshop for its teachers on the new curriculum during vacation” Mr. Quaye said.
He urged authorities in the education delivery chain to be forthcoming with information in the future.
A teacher at the Pre-School Department told The Ghana Report she knew nothing about the new curriculum and the school uniforms scheduled to be introduced in September later this year.
A taxi driver, Kumi, who plies the Mallam-Odorkor stretch appeared lost in thought when asked about the new changes set to be introduced in September this year.
“I do not know much about this whole changes, I only heard it once in the news but sincerely I feel this move is a way by some government officials to steal from the national coffers. School children do not need new uniforms to aim to attend SHS or university, I feel there is someone behind this whole change looking to satisfy his/her personal financial desire.”
Another parent working with the Burkina Faso Embassy here in Accra who preferred to remain anonymous kicked against the introduction of the new uniforms for basic schools since it will be an additional burden on parents. He however praised the authorities for the introduction of the new curriculum. He adds though that the move should be first piloted before a major roll-out across all basic schools in the country.
“The introduction of the new uniforms is not the best as it will bring extra cost unto parents but that of the curriculum is in good fate but its implementation should have been done on a pilot basis,” the parent said.
All efforts to reach the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Ministry of Education, Vincent Assifuah to respond to the concerns expressed were unsuccessful.
He neither returned 6 calls placed to him nor responded to two text messages sent after having earlier agreed to an interview.
Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, at a recent press conference to launch the new curriculum and uniforms observed that the introduction of the new school uniform “is a psychological strategy to make pupils see themselves as part of the Senior High School education system even before they get there.”
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) has developed a new curriculum for implementation in September this year.
Dr. Prince H. Armah, Acting Executive Secretary of NaCCA after the announcement of the new curriculum in April 2019, clarified that the content of the new curriculum is progressive with the intention of teaching pupils the country’s history in chronological order as they move from one class to the other.
But the largest opposition party in the country, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has served notice it will review the new curriculum to be introduced next academic year if it wins power in the 2020 general elections.
“That curriculum that seeks to hype J.B Danquah will also be reviewed so that we put him in his rightful place in Ghana’s history. We can’t allow a President to assume power and because he relates to J.B Danquah then seek to elevate him and rewrite Ghana’s history to favour his family, that will never be countenanced,” Peter Otokunor, Deputy Secretary of the NDC told an Accra based radio station recently.