'Hyping' JB Danquah in new curricula based on academic, professional considerations - NaCCA

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) has defended the introduction of and emphasis on JB Danquah into the new curriculum to be introduced next academic year ABC News Ghana can report.

NaCCA asserts that the new curriculum was developed on professional and academic contributions and assessment, not mere partisan consideration as is being speculated by many.

Dr. Prince H. Armah, Acting Executive Secretary of NaCCA clarified that content of the new curriculum is progressive with the intention of teaching pupils the country’s history in a chronological order as they move from one class to the other.

The statement issued by the NaCCA and copied to ABC News Ghana noted that “Whilst NaCCA appreciates and values public feedback on the new curriculum as an important element in helping to improve learning outcomes through a robust and responsive curriculum, we wish to state for the avoidance of doubt that our work is based mainly on academic and professional considerations.”

NaCCA says it will further engage with key stakeholders and is

open to receiving inputs from all quarters as it finalises the curriculum before the beginning of the next academic year.

Below is the full press release from NaCCA.

PUBLIC CONCERNS ON THE HISTORY CURRICULUM

The attention of the National Council for Curriculum & Assessment (NaCCA) has been drawn to some concerns raised on certain social and electronic media platforms, claiming that the new history curriculum for primary schools is skewed towards amplifying the role of Dr. J.B. Danquah in Ghana’s history to serve a political interest. These concerns tend to give a partisan political colouration to the development of the history curriculum which NaCCA considers regrettable.

NaCCA therefore wishes to provide the following important clarifications:

1. At the JHS and SHS levels, the history curriculum will highlight further details on the independence and post-independence political activities. This is where Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and other political leaders and regimes feature more prominently.

2. The experts who designed the curriculum were not selected on the basis of any political considerations, and it is unfortunate for anyone to suggest otherwise. The likes of Prof. Kwame Osei Kwarteng, Prof. Wilson Yayoh, Dr. Samuel Boadi Siaw, Mrs. Anitha Adu-Boahen and other historians who worked on the History Curriculum are all scholars of great repute and proven integrity who have nothing to gain by skewing historical facts one way or the other. For quality assurance, the curriculum was reviewed by Professor Emeritus D. E. K. Amenumey.

Whilst NaCCA appreciates and values public feedback on the new curriculum as an important element in helping to improve learning outcomes through a robust and responsive curriculum, we wish to state for the avoidance of doubt that our work is based mainly on academic and professional considerations.

NaCCA looks forward to receiving more feedbacks from the public on the new curriculum. Further, NaCCA wishes to thank the public for the generally warm reception given to the new standards-based curriculum.

Dr. Prince H. Armah Ag. Executive Secretary