NaCCA starts stakeholder discussion on JHS, SHS curriculum review

The Education Ministry in partnership with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) and Ghana Education Service (GES) has held a 3-day Ministerial Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) workshop in Accra.

This was to discuss assessment proposals and make recommendations to guide the comprehensive review of the Junior High School (JHS) and Senior High School (SHS) curriculum.

The workshop sought to create a forum to discuss issues regarding the alignment of the new school curriculum and assessment framework and make recommendations on learner progression and placement from the JHS to SHS.

Education Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh in his opening remarks, spoke about the need for secondary education to prepare learners for skills, training, field of work and lifelong learning.

He stressed the need to make the country’s capacity building agenda sustainable through the review of the JHS and SHS curriculum.

This review process is expected to stimulate curriculum change at the universities by aligning the university entry requirements with the secondary education curriculum.

The end result is to make all courses accessible to all students irrespective of a student’s background or socio-economic status.

The new curriculum is engineered to reinforce the knowledge and skills acquired during basic education and provide a diversified curriculum to cater for different aptitudes, abilities, interest, and skills.

It will also provide an opportunity for further education and training and introduce students to a variety of relevant occupational skills necessary for national human resource development.

Students would better understand the environment and the need for its sustainability and develop an interest in lifelong learning.

On his part, the Executive Secretary of NaCCA stressed that a holistic application of the Free SHS policy and other reforms would require the adoption of an innovative and inclusive curriculum and assessment standards including teaching methodologies that would account for variations in learning abilities of students at every level of the school system.

The workshop was chaired by Professor Dominic Fobih, a former Minister of Education, in attendance was the Honourable Deputy Minister of Education (TVET) as well as Council Chairs, Heads of various agencies of the Ministry of Education,and experts from Universities, Colleges of Education as well as eminent educationists.