General News of 2013-02-16

GES Introduces courses in oil and gas for SHS students

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has developed a new school curriculum for senior high school (SHS) students which has as a component, the study of oil and gas, which is expected to equip them for further studies in the oil industry.

The curriculum, which was reviewed in 2009 to cover the new three-year SHS programme reintroduced by the National Democratic Congress government, has courses that cover the oil industry.

Mr Antwi Aning, Head of the Science Unit, Curriculum Research and Development Division of the GES, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra, said though all students studying core science are given some facts in petroleum refinery,those learning science were the main beneficiaries of oil and gas courses.

“One has to have a science background to enable one to study courses in oil and gas. The Chemistry syllabus was therefore reviewed to enable students study how the oil is formed, methods of exploration, types of crude oil, refinery, trade names, among other things.

Meanwhile GNA’s visit to some of the schools indicated that most students were not aware of the programme.

Some of the students who spoke to the GNA said they had not been taught anything at all.

Pricilla Siaw, a form two student of the Odorgonno Senior High School, said she had not come across the study of oil in any of her subjects.

She even accused the presidential candidates in the December 2012 elections of failing to speak adequately about the oil and gas sector during their electioneering campaigns.

Gifty Okai, another student said “Oil and gas courses should be prioritised through the introduction of courses to the schools right from the JHS through the SHS so that students would learn about oil and their interest to work in the industry in future would be whipped up”.

Mrs Mary Amakwah, the Headmistress of Odorgonno SHS, who corroborated what the students had said, told the GNA that currently such courses were not being studied at the school.

She explained that when Ghana first found oil, some students of the school were just invited to participate in seminars and workshops on the oil and gas industry but those who participated in the programme had graduated and left the school.