GES begins nationwide training on new education curriculum

Circuit supervisors, head teachers and teachers in public basic schools are to undergo training in the new curriculum expected to be introduced in the 2018/2019 academic year for Kindergarten One to Primary Six.

About 152,000 teachers made up of the three groups from all over the country will from today converge on 996 school centres spread throughout the 260 districts in the 16 regions of the country to begin the exercise which will take place over a one-week period.

In view of the huge numbers involved, each centre will have the teachers trained in batches.

Resource persons

The Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, who made this known in an interview with the Daily Graphic, said the teachers would be trained by 3,900 national and district resource persons.

“In addition, about 186 master trainers are being dispatched by the GES to support the exercise,” he said.

New curriculum

Professor Opoku-Amankwa said the approved basic curriculum for KG One to Primary Six would be implemented in September at the start of the 2019-2020 academic year.

“The new curriculum was developed by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) and is a shift from the objective-based curriculum to a standards-based curriculum with focus on strengthening the acquisition of the 4Rs (Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic and cReativity) as foundational skills for life-long learning and national development,” he said.

The GES officially and publicly launched the new curriculum last April and offered the opportunity to book publishers to start developing appropriate textbooks.

He explained that the GES and NaCCA had developed training manuals, including training guides and teacher resource packs, and also had the entire curriculum and training materials in soft copy.

“They are available on the websites of both the GES and NaCCA websites for easy access by teachers and the general public.

“Additionally, samples of structured lessons, worksheets, yearly overview, termly scheme of work and weekly lesson plans have also been developed to aide teachers in delivering contents of the new curriculum,” he said.

Prof. Opoku-Amankwa explained that the materials for the training exercise, which had been sent to the regions, were to be picked up by organisers in the various districts.

He said all regional and district directors of education would be involved in supervising the training exercise and would be supported by staff from the GES headquarters.

Prof. Opoku-Amankwa explained that a simulation exercise on the curriculum training was held in May this year and was conducted by 36 national simulators to identify areas in the curriculum that needed improvement.

“After the initial simulation, 186 master trainers were trained after which the 3,900 regional and district resource persons were also trained.

“Additionally, there has been support from the British Council and Cambridge on Assessment for Learning,” Prof. Opoku-Amankwa disclosed.