The heavy reliance on Art subjects in the educational system other than Science continues to do more harm than good to the nation’s developmental structure.

Mr. Nathan Pecku, Director in-charge of Special Education at the Ghana Education Service (GES) said this at a workshop organised by some JICA volunteers in the Tano South District Office of GES for Junior High School (JHS) students of Bechem School for the Deaf, at Bechem.

Mr. Pecku said it was an open secret that the concentration on Arts subjects for majority of students in second cycle institutions was creating a vacuum in the nation’s technological development.

He said the few teaching staff manning sciences at the nation’s Basic and Second Cycle institutions attested to his point, and assured that all efforts were being made by the GES to entice teachers and students to take keen interest in the study of Science, so that Ghana could move abreast with the globally Information Communication Technology (ICT) competition.

Mr. Pecku said efforts in promoting the study of Sciences in the country must start right from the training of teachers from our Colleges of Education (formerly known as Training Colleges), stressing that, it was only when more Science teachers were produced for the subject at the basic level that more students would develop interest for the subject to continue to SHS.

He said the Ghana National Association of Deaf Students was collaborating with its counterparts in Holland to start sign language training for Special Education teachers in Ghana and urged teachers of Bechem School for the Deaf to capitalize on the opportunity when everything was set.

Ms. Haruna Morino, leader of the eight-member JICA Volunteers, who is also attached to the Tano South District Office of the GES in her remark said, the workshop, which was organised in collaboration with other JICA Volunteers in Ghana also formed part of the Organization’s 35th celebration event of the relationship between the two countries (Japan and Ghana).

Other volunteers, who conducted a number of practical experiments to emphasize more about the subjects’ content of the workshop, included Mr. Shinichi Izumi of Saint Andrew College of Education, Kumasi-Ashanti, Ms. Kanae Ishifuji, a Computer tutor, Jamasi School for the Deaf in the Ashanti Region and Mr.Takenori Aoki of Akatse College of Education in the Volta Region.

Mrs. Veronica Ayeh, Headmistress of Bechem School for the Deaf, thanked the volunteers for organizing the workshop for the students.

Mrs. Ayeh urged the Board of Directors of the school to assist in organising similar workshops to educate both the teaching staff and the students to update their memory on science subjects.

The experiments were based on four subjects namely, “Electrical jar”, “Making fire through stone”, “Plastic bottle rocket”, and “Oxygen propelled burning”.**