390 Teachers Undergo Training in New Standard-Based Curriculum

By Alberto Mario Noretti

Ho — The Ghana Education Service (GES) is training teachers from the Kindergarten to Primary Six level countrywide, for the new standard-based curriculum, to replace the old objective-based curriculum.

Already, the GES had coached 150 master trainers, to in turn train 3, 900 trainers who would be deployed to train teachers at the district and local levels.

Presently, 390 master trainers from the Volta and Oti regions are undergoing a week's training in the new curriculum in Ho.

Professor Wilson K. Yayoh, lead facilitator of the workshop, told the Ghanaian Times that the old objective-based curriculum had not been reviewed comprehensively since 2009.

He said that the curriculum for schools had to be reviewed every five years, and that meant Ghana was late in that respect.

"For instance, the children are ahead of the old curriculum, and they can manipulate ICT gadgets, yet the teaching method does not include support for those skills," Prof. Yayoh explained.

The lead facilitator said that the standard-based curriculum would shift the focus from merely passing examinations to the practical acquisition of skills.

The government is rolling out a new standard-based curriculum for use from Kindergarten (KG) to Primary Six, to replace the objective-based curriculum in September, this year.

Mr Anthony Boateng, Deputy Director-General of the GES, said the standard-based curriculum was to ensure that children acquire certain predetermined skills and knowledge at a certain level.

He told the Ghanaian Times in Ho on Wednesday that the aim was also to guarantee that children demonstrated appreciable ability, knowledge and competence in reading, creativity and numeracy at that stage.

"We want the children to manipulate their own environment to find simple solutions to problems that confront their surroundings and the society," Mr Boateng explained.

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