GES distributes resource packs to teachers
Aburi (E/R), Jan 17, GNA-The Ghana Education Service (GES) has distributed teacher’s and learner’s resource packs to Junior High School (JHS) teachers to guide them in the implementation of the newly designed Common Core Programme.
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) designed the Teacher’s Resource Pack and Learner’s Resource Pack to complement the CCP.
The resources are to guide teachers in lesson planning and delivery, and assessment of the performance of learners, and not to be treated as a substitute for the CCP.
The Eastern Regional Public Relations Officer for GES, Mr Emmanuel Acheampong, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said a three-day training workshop was organized for all JHS teachers.
He said the training covered nine learning areas with the teachers grouped and trained according to the subject they taught in school.
He classified the resources as Teaching and Learning Materials (TLMs) meant to assist teachers in the CCP implementation.
Mr Acheampong said textbooks were written and published for students, adding: “Textbooks are made for students to practice what they have been taught in the classroom.”
He also quizzed, “I am surprised at the way teachers are being trained today. Does it mean that without textbooks, can’t the teacher teach.”
However, he said several textbooks have been written with some approved by NACCA for publication and were currently available for sale in the local market.
“What the public wants, is to see government buying the works of others, publishing them and supplying them to various schools,” he added.
He advised teachers to be creative and innovative in the implementation of the CCP. “Look out for improvisation. The classroom should not always be the only environment. They must improvise.
“Learners must be able to apply what is being learned in the classroom to the society,” he said.
Meanwhile, an investigation by the Ghana News Agency showed that teachers have been introduced to some new words or terms in the Learning areas that include; Career Technology to replace Basic Design and Technology, and Physical and Health Education replacing Physical Education.
Although textbooks on the CCP are currently not available, GES encouraged teachers to improvise and be creative in their lesson delivery.
However, the African Education Watch, education policy research organisation, has raised concern about the rollout of the CCP without providing textbooks.
The education policy think tank in a statement early this month urged the Ministry of Education to make textbooks available to all kindergartens and primary schools and also called for provision of textbooks for the CCP in the 2022 academic year.
“This is to prevent a repetition of the two-year absence of textbooks that occasioned the primary school curriculum,” it said.
