Early grade teachers in Obuasi undergo training on reading skills

AngloGold Ashanti, Obuasi Mine has collaborated with Obuasi East and the Obuasi Municipal Education Directorates to provide in-service training for over 500 early grade teachers on reading skills and phonics.

Over 250 teachers from KG1, KG2, BS1, BS2 and BS3 took part in the first cohort which began on Tuesday, July 4, 2023 in the Obuasi Municipality. The KG teachers received training on jolly phonics while the lower primary teachers received training on transition from Ghanaian Language of instruction(in teaching) to English Language.

In a recent press briefing by the Minister of Education, Yaw Osei Adutwum, he posited that as of 2022, about 38 percent of students in Primary 2 across the country could read, implying that 62 percent of these students were unable to read.

This has been a major concern for stakeholders in the education sector judging from the importance attached to education at the foundation stage.

According to the Obuasi Municipal Director of Education, George Alfred Koomson, the workshop was basically aimed at equipping the teachers with the needed skills to improve reading in schools. He said it is targeted at finding a lasting solution to the learners inability to read and comprehend texts during lessons.

Koomson said AngloGold Ashanti has supported the Education Directorates in organising workshops for teachers but the concentration was on Junior High School teachers preparing students for BECE.

He added that after analysing the BECE results churned out, the Directorates realised that though the results were good but there was a challenge regarding the ability of children to read and comprehend what has been read.

"This informed our decision to focus on teachers at the basic level", he said.

The Education Director was optimistic that the workshop will help the teachers to build on their already acquired skills to enable them discharge their duties effectively.

He said "If children are asked to read and comprehend what they read, 70-80% of work to be done by teachers will be complete".

He added that the participants were taken through what phonics and looked at some of the phonics skills, such as decoding, encoding and blending sounds of words together as well as how to make children read fluently in English.

The initiative to train teachers in Obuasi forms part of AngloGold Ashanti's 10- year Socio- economic Development Plan geared towards improving educational standards in the mine's operational area.

The participants were full of praised the organisers of the workshop. Gifty Prempeh of Obuasi Presby KG said they have acquired new methods of teaching using sounds rather than focusing on alphabets.

She said: "This will make teaching and learning more interesting".

She commended AngloGold Ashanti for sponsoring the training program saying it has also enhanced peer review among teachers. She said teachers are able to interact more with one another and learn from others.

Francis Danso, a teacher of SDA primary B said the use of use of jolly phonics was an eye opener for them, adding that it will make teaching and learning easier in schools.

About 255 teachers from Obuasi East District will equally receive the same training soon.