Report by Nana POKU
The Deputy Director General of the National Council for Curriculum Assessment, Mr. Mathew Owusu has disclosed that, for convenience and flexibility sake, the Council has graciously reduced the SHS subjects from the current 63 to 37 in the country.
This was announced at a day’s workshop that took place at GNAT Hall in Accra recently by the officials of the National Council for Curriculum Assessment (NaCCA).
The rationale behind this decision is to lessen the burden on students in selecting their subjects with ease as well as offering fewer subjects during their WASSCE final exams.
Mr Owusu intimated that students learn so many subjects and cover so many areas, but the new curriculum seeks to reduce the number of subjects at a time.
While some subjects have been merged, others have been subsumed under new topics or been made non-examinable or removed outright.
For instance students used to learn 10 subjects in the final year and write exams on 8 or 9 subjects, but now, it has been reduced from 10 to 8 subjects and candidates can sit for 7 or 8 subjects.
Again, the new curriculum allows a science student to offer one or two Arts subjects and vice versa.
A student can change his or her course if he or she faces difficulties in learning the subject chosen.
He stated that all these things are being done to give students the free will to pursue programs that the students have the ability to grasp and absorb well.
The DDG admonished students to know the subjects within their scope and not follow their peers or egos to choose difficult programs that they cannot grasp firmly.
He argued that irrespective of area of study, one must be able to choose an area he/she feels comfortable and easy for oneself for the final exams.
The workshop was to restructure the current curriculum that is too theoretical.
Students learn by ‘chew, pour, pass and forget’ methods and forget afterwards.
The new curriculum is designed to be practical and hands-on because of the interest system of learning today.
Some new subjects were being considered in place of the old ones considered to be outmoded and moribund.
The workshop brought together teachers, examiners, NaCCA officials, SHS students, heads of SHS, GES officials, and Directors of Education, etc.
The DDG opined that as a result of political ideology, the curriculum should be reviewed every five years as pertains in developed countries to avoid interference.
