New Curriculum: ‘Basic schools don’t have required textbooks’ – Coalition of Concerned Teachers

Communications Director for the Coalition of Concerned Teachers, Awuley Adokwei says teachers and students in the Basic and Junior High Schools are yet to receive teaching and learning materials two years after the introduction of a new curriculum at these levels.

According to the coalition, the unavailability of these materials has affected teaching and learning and can be attributed to the exposure of students to unapproved and stereotypical textbooks.

The burden of teachers who only have handbooks of the new curriculum has more than doubled as they have to conduct their own research and recommend good books to aid students.

“The government has not supplied us with any textbooks after the new curriculum was introduced and that has been a challenge. If the government had given us the textbooks earlier, we wouldn’t be facing the problems we have now."

"As teachers, we are just using the handbooks given to us. The handbook is for training on the new curriculum but it does not carry the content we need to teach students. We now need to do our own research to teach. We recommend books for students based on our research”.

He appealed to the authorities to be quick in providing schools with books to fit the new curriculum as teachers can improvise for so long.

“As a teacher, I’ve been trained to teach without textbooks. I can improvise and help the kids but at the end of the day, the teacher is aware he is limited in one way or the other. But because he knows he needs to impart knowledge, he will teach regardless of being handicapped”.

Speaking in an interview on the Happy Morning Show aired on e.TV Ghana and Happy98.9FM, hosted by Samuel Eshun, he admitted that they (teachers) had received assurance from the GES that the books will be made available to them at the start of 2021 “now we are in March and have received no books but we are still waiting”.

Background

The GES (Ghana Education Service) in conjunction with the Ghana National Association of Teachers developed a new standard-based curriculum. The GES new curriculum is drawn on best practices all over the globe and is to be utilized by educators in basic schools all over Ghana.

The modern curriculum is designed with recognition of the difficulty of modern times and the importance of quality education.

Elements of the GES new curriculum that make it more appealing than its predecessor include;

At the kindergarten level, the learning areas will be reduced to four from seven. These are going to be integrated into themes.

Teachers will be tasked to go more in-depth, considering the reduced learning areas. Lower and upper primary subjects are going to be as before.

However, the curriculum proposes fewer concepts that have more depth for every idea.

The new system places more focus on proper literacy and numeracy as they are the pillars of all advanced studies.

The GES new curriculum is standard-based, meaning that every student or learner ought to demonstrate competency and mastery of knowledge

All students (P2, P4 and P6) will undergo a mandatory assessment to check and track their performance.

Students from P1 to P6 are required to study history as a mandatory subject. This is integral as students ought to be conversant with their identity to be confident and patriotic.

Additionally, RME and PE will be a standalone subject. PE will be taught practically. French education will be taught in Upper Primary.