The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), has organized a stakeholder engagement and town hall meeting on the Secondary Education Curriculum Development at the Bono East Region.

The workshop is part of a series of activities undertaken by NaCCA to foster collaboration and transparency in the development of the Secondary Education Curriculum as it is aimed to inform stakeholders about the progress made so far, discuss future plans, and provide an opportunity for feedback and contributions.

The development of a new Secondary Education Curriculum aligns with the Education Strategic Plan 2018-2030 (pg 22), which mandates NaCCA to review the basic education curriculum to ensure a greater focus on the foundational skills of reading, writing, arithmetic, and creativity.

The event, which took place at the AJ Plaza Hotel in the Techiman South Municipality of the Bono East Region, was attended by the Nkoranza North District Chief Executive who doubles as the Dean of the MMDCEs in the Bono East Region, Hon. Peter Osei Fosu, representatives of the Bono East Regional House of Chiefs, Bono East Educational Directorate, security agencies, drivers associations, Non-Governmental Agencies, members of the various religious groups, students and a section of the media including many others.

NaCCA officials presented an overview of the ongoing curriculum development process, highlighting the key objectives, challenges, and proposed solutions. The presentation was followed by an open forum where stakeholders had the chance to ask questions, share their concerns, and provide valuable insights.

The Director of Corporate Affairs at the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, Mrs. Rebecca Abu Gariba, during her presentation, revealed that the goal of the new curriculum is for the education sector to deliver quality education service at all levels that will equip learners in education institutions with skills, competencies, and awareness that would make them functional citizens who can contribute to the attainment of the national goal.

According to her, “The new Senior High School Curriculum is a standard-based curriculum just like the Junior High and primary as well, so we are here to engage stakeholders as we have done in other regions.

Best young women profiles

“There is the need to change the curriculum because we have had the old curriculum for some time now, and you know we are now in the 21st century and we need to change our curriculum to fit what we want as our national goal for our students and for them to also be able to contribute to the attainment of that goal, for them to also have a better study, whether they want to continue with their studies, work or adult life,” she said.

Mrs. Rebecca Abu Gariba, further explained that the new curriculum which is under development is very inclusive as the needs of all learners in the classroom have been taken into consideration.

“This curriculum is very very inclusive in the sense that we have taken into consideration the needs of all learners in the classroom, we are going to have a math curriculum that will take care of the blind and the developers, stakeholders and writers of this curriculum included people who are blind and they know what it means to develop a curriculum.

“Because we have only for the primary school where the child will do mathematics and when the child goes to the Senior High School, that is the school for the blind they don’t do mathematics, that means you go to the university and you may find it very challenging in courses like research method and statistics if only you are doing that.

“So now having the Senior High School curriculum, math for the blind is very important and that is what we are doing,” she explained.

On the issue of teaching and learning materials, she said NaCCA has provided a manual for every subject while conducting a series of trainings for facilities including PLCs, DPLCs.

She disclosed that the various teacher’s associations and some subject associations will come together to write materials that will be used by both facilitators and learners. According to her, the materials will be zero-rated to enable learners and facilitators to download them free of charge on the NaCCA website.

The Hansuahemaa and Bamuhemaa of the Techiman Traditional Area who doubles as an educationist, Nana Ama Asantewaa Munufie, thanked NaCCA for the stakeholders, saying, “It was a very interesting program and a successful one, it's a good initiative and believe if we adopt it, it will really help us.

She however urged the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, as a matter of urgency, to make available the needed resources that will enable facilitators to implement the new curriculum.

“The ideas are very good but most of the time, we have challenges when it comes to its implementation. Some few years back, they introduced a new curriculum for basic schools and we had challenges with resources, they have introduced a new curriculum for the Senior High School which is very good but for it to be successful, we will need resources,” she told our reporter.