Review syllabus to make it relevant - Prof Ocquaye

Accra, 28 May, GNA - Professor Mike Ocquaye, Minister of Energy on Saturday called for a constant review of the syllabus of schools to make them relevant to the needs of the nation and the rapidly changing global challenges.

He said the curriculum should be relevant to present developmental needs taking into account the path the nation wishes to tread in future. Prof Ocquaye was speaking at the 67th Speech and prize-giving day of the Presbyterian Boys Secondary School at Legon, near Accra on the theme, "Promoting Quality Second Cycle Education: the Challenges".


"There is the need for quality education to fully exploit our human resources in order to create wealth and reduce poverty in the country," he said adding, "We need to properly train our students by providing them with the right kind of education that would nurture them into innovative and visionary leaders".


The Minister said attaining quality in second cycle institutions was not the problem of the state alone but was a collective effort of the various stakeholders including parents and teachers. Prof Ocquaye said indiscipline in second cycle institutions had affected the quality of education in the country and called on parents and teachers to come together to help in addressing the problem. He said in this age of Information Technology "There is the need to establish computer laboratories in our schools to ensure that we produce students who would not lose out on the global technology race". The Minister said there was the need to motivate teachers to produce their best and devote their time and energy to offer their students the quality education that they require as the future leaders of this nation.


He called on those tasked with managing second cycle institutions to offer the kind of leadership to create an excellent teaching and learning atmosphere to bring out the best in students. The Minister said even though heads of second cycle institutions faced a lot of challenges, they should not use that as an excuse to fail to offer effective leadership, saying, "Our school heads need to be innovative and resourceful so that the little resources they are given will be utilized effectively".

He said teachers held the key to the door of academic excellence, saying, "No matter how excellent the curriculum is, it will fail to achieve its goals; if the students is poorly taught by the teacher". Prof Ocquaye called on old students to do their best to contribute to their alma mater, saying, "You are what you are today because of the education and training that you had from the school".


Mr John Asare, Headmaster, said it was unfortunate that a very small percentage of students focused on the reason they were in school, saying, "some of these students have come to school with high grades bur are not performing well because of the negative attitude to academic work.


He called on parents to cooperate with school authorities to help maintain the high level of discipline in schools. The Headmaster said the school had performed well at the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination, saying, the 2004 results was an improvement on that of 2003.


While in 2003, 80.2 per cent qualified for University 88.95 qualified in 2004.