Takoradi, Nov. 21, GNA - The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports has revised the education curriculum to produce human resource for the country's petro-chemical industry, Mrs Rebecca Efiba Dadzie, Western Regional Director of Education, has said. This was contained in an address read for her on Thursday at the launch of the Ghana Association of Science Teachers (GAST) National Science Week at Takoradi. The theme for the week is "Developing the Human Resource for Oil Industry in Ghana: Implications for Science and Technology Education". Mrs Dadzie said subjects in the revised curriculum included petrochemical, oil and gas, oil exploration, pharmaceutical and cosmetic engineering. She said human resource is a key factor in reaping maximum benefit from the oil industry and this could be done through effective training and retraining of personnel including science teachers.

Mr Peter Logo, National President of GAST, said one of the goals of the association is to improve upon the teaching of science in all pre-university institutions through the organization of workshops, lectures, symposia, quizzes and science fairs. He said the association has also complemented the efforts of government by writing science books in biology, chemistry, physics and integrated science being used in senior high schools. Mr Ayuub Morgan, Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Director of Education, said science must be demystified and made practicable in everyday life for better appreciation by students and the general public.

He said this could be possible when there are sufficient professionally qualified and dedicated science teachers, science laboratories, science laboratories and stakeholder support. Mr Morgan said this is not the case in the metropolis as in other places in the country. He said, "It will, therefore, be appreciated if GAST would sensitize and mobilize all stakeholders to cooperate to make science teaching and learning as practicable and relevant as possible in our everyday life".