The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) has released the first batch of text books recommended for Kindergarten (KG) and primary schools, in line with the new curriculum introduced last year.
The list comprises about 187 text books and work books for pupils and teacher’s guide in subjects including Numeracy, Mathematics, Creative Arts, Science, English Language and Religious and Moral Education.
A statement issued by the Executive Director of NaCCA, Dr Prince Hamid Armah, in Accra on Friday, said the council, acting on behalf of the Ministry of Education, worked with various stakeholders to arrive at the list.
“These textbooks have gone through series of reviews between NaCCA and the publishers to ensure they conform to the expectation of the new KG-Basic 6 curriculum introduced in September 2019”, it said.
The council said it was open to feedback from school managers, teachers, parents and the general public on the recommended textbooks to help text book writers and publishers improve on the quality of textbooks.
The new Kindergarten and Primary School Curriculum was launched and rolled out in the beginning of the 2019/2020 academic year, which started in September last year.
Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, the Minister of Education, at the launch of the curriculum, weeks earlier, said it was to address the inherent deficiencies in the old curriculum, such as content overload, limitations of the objective-based curriculum and inability of the assessment system to provide sufficient data on which improvement in teaching and learning could be fashioned.
Meanwhile as part of its preparation towards a possible re-opening of schools, the Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Professor Akwasi Opoku Amankwaa, has officially written to major stakeholders soliciting their inputs for the way forward.
The stakeholders written to were the Ministry of Education, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and they were to offer inputs that could be applied for smooth re-opening of schools in the country.
The call was in anticipation of a possible re-opening of schools in the event that the ban on public gathering is lifted by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on May 30.
A copy of the letter sighted by the Ghanaian Times, said “As a major stakeholder in Education delivery in the country, we wish to have your input as an Association on strategies to adapt to ensure that we can smoothly reopen schools in the country while ensuring the minimum security and safety of all”.
Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 in the country, government announced the closure of all educational institutions as part of broader measures to curtail the spread of the pandemic in the country.
In compliance with the directive, schools were closed on March 15 and have remained close till date.
BY CLIFF EKUFUL AND JONATHAN DONKOR
