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Report by Edward FRIMPONG
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), an agency mandated to develop Curriculum and Assessment has clarified the misconceptions of the various reforms in Ghana’s Education purported to have come from Ghana Education Service, Ministry of Education, and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.
A released statement signed by the Director General of NaCCA, Prof.Edward Appiah revealed that the institution responded three years ago to similar misconceptions but has to do so again, due to certain messages circulated on social media platforms.
In explanation, NaCCA used SDG 4.1 to buttress its clarifications saying, countries are required to provide “Universal Primary and Secondary Education” to all Children.
According to the NaCCA, Ghana decided that Secondary Education would be the minimum level of Education offered to its citizens. In keeping with this, Senior High Schools (SHS) were added to the definition of “Basic Education”.This does not automatically transform Senior High Schools (SHS) into Basic Schools as is being suggested.
NaCCA stated that the Pre-Tertiary Education Act, 2020 (Act 1049), section 1 indicates that two years of kindergarten, six years of primary education, and three years of Junior High School are in a subset of Basic Education while three years of Senior High School or three years of Technical and Vocational Education and Training are categorized under Secondary Education.
In 2017 the Curriculum reform was started with the establishment of a 14-Member Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) chaired by Professor Kwame Osei Kwarteng.
In several meetings, consultations and stakeholders engagements under the auspices of a 14-Member Ministerial Advisory Committee completed its work and presented its report and recommendations to the Cabinet in October 2017.
Based on the recommendations of the MAC.NaCCA was approved and tasked by Cabinet to start the review of the Pre-Tertiary Education Curriculum.NaCCA started the review using a phase-level approach as recommended by the MAC. The standards-Based Curriculum (SBC) for Primary was completed and rolled out in 2019 while Common Core Programme (CCP) for JHS was completed and rolled out in 2020.
Meanwhile, the development of a Standards-Based Curriculum (SBC) for Senior High School is in progress. The process has gone through different stages of development consultations, stakeholder engagements, trialing, and quality assurance.
It will be instructive for stakeholders to engage with NaCCA to understand the SBC for Senior High School. It is worth noting that SBC for SHS would be rolled out immediately after extensive stakeholder engagement and Cabinet approval.
As a sequel to the review and development of the SBC.NaCCA came out with a National Pre-Tertiary Education Curriculum Framework which serves as a guide for the review and revision of the Curriculum for Primary, JHS, and SHS.NaCCA also developed the National Pre-Tertiary Learning and Assessment Framework (NPLAF).
NaCCA debunked that there is no indication of any cancellation of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the Assessment Framework as directed by the NPLAF. NaCCA stated that BECE is a “placement Exam” used in placing JHS Graduates into SHSs. Hence, there is no reason to abolish it. If anything at all, it will be the mode of examination that may be varied.
The National Standard Test (NST) replaces the National Education Assessment (NEA) conducted by the erstwhile Curriculum Research and Development Division (CRDD), which is now the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA). The NST is to measure learners’ performance in literacy and numeracy and use the outcome for remediation and allocation of resources (material and human). During the test, other key information is collected to help in decision-making in reforming education.
The brand name for the Standards-Based Curriculum (SBC) is known Common Core Programme (CCP) which is modeled for the JHS. Students in Senior High School (SHS) are exempted from CCP subjects as is being speculated. The CCP has Nine Learning Areas which have been broken down into 12 subjects.
In conclusion, it is indicative to know that the Minister of Education is currently rolling out a series of reforms. These reforms are meant to improve learning outcomes and enhance accountability and equity at all levels of the Education sector.
NaCCA is assiduously playing an important role in these reforms and is ready to support as far as its mandate allows.
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