Free SHS: Minister hints of introducing customised learning for students

The Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Secondary, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum is proposing the introduction of customised learning into Ghana’s Education system.

He said customized learning approach will ensure personalized learning for each student based on his/her strength, need, skill and interests.

This he said, will ensure that students who are weak in other subjects particularly English get a special learning plan to improve in the subject.

“There are students in research we call them limited English proficient. They are not fluent in English. They may not be able to read and write English very well and as a result, they are not accessing other courses same as someone who is fluent and proficient in English. Schools have to begin to identify them and look at how we can help these students”

He added “In fact, I am proposing, and I hope one day we will have to work on it- that if you are not proficient in English, you should not carry nine courses. What is the point?…so we have to begin to look at how to customize education for the Children and not look at them as equal. Because we have been doing the same thing at the Universities and it is not helping us with our outcomes”.

According to him, government is focusing on three most important benchmarks of quality education that enhance national development which is; access, quality, and relevance.

He said “to transform Education System all these things have to work together in other to have a robust system through which you transform your country and if you don’t, your country will not develop”

Dr. Yaw Adutwum hence proposed that tertiary education must be aligned to industries particularly the One District One Factory so that students are trained to meet the needs of the companies.

“Yes One District One Factory is great but the opportunity presented to us is to align education to those factories in such a way that every industrial park will have a training center so that if you are in technical school, or vocational school, you don’t wait from school do your exam before you get practical experience. We have German Dual model where you are in school and you are at work at the same time”.

Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum said this in Koforidua at the sidelines of a stakeholder’s forum on Free SHS organized by Voluntary Partnerships for West Africa, VPWA, an NGO.

The NGO made known outcomes of research it commissioned on the Free SHS policy implementation. The research conducted in a total of 37 SHSs in Eastern and Ashanti Regions revealed delays in release of funds, inadequate infrastructure, increased workload of teachers, and delay in food supplies and difficulty in controlling a large number of students, as major challenges identified.

The NGO also revealed that Free SHS Policy has led to an increase in enrollment by 50%. The findings also revealed that the majority of the beneficiaries in Ashanti region are boys whereas, in the Eastern region, majority are girls.

Evans Hokey, Programs Officer for the NGO told Starr news, the aim of the research was to generate reliable, accurate and valid evidence which will first of all be used to guide the implementation of the Free SHS policy and Secondly advocate for higher spending on educational needs.