Government will soon rollout a new education initiative dubbed: ‘Beyond Academic Skills,’ to equip students with out of classroom skills to enable them fit into society after school, the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has disclosed.
The initiative, which is the government’s flagship programme for education delivery, also aims at equipping students with the necessary skills and competencies beyond literacy and numeracy to make them functional in the world of work.
Additionally, it is to train them to be critical and hands-on and develop the ability to solve critical national challenges.
Mr Iddrisu disclosed this when he inaugurated a 13-member steering committee for the supervision and review of the school curriculum from Kindergarten to primary six in Accra yesterday.
The committee, to be chaired by the minister himself, also has the Chief Director of the MOE, Mrs Maamle Andrews; Technical Advisor to the Minister, Professor George K.T. Oduro; Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Professor Ernest Kofi Davis; Director-General of the National Council for Curriculum Assessment (NaCCA), Professor Yayra Dzakadzi; and National School Inspectorate Authority (NaSIA), Professor Azeko Salifu Tahiru, as members.
Other members are Registrar, National Teaching Council (NTC), Prof. Christian Addai Poku; Director-General, Technical Vocational and Educational Training (TVET) Service; Dr Eric Adzore, Director, TVET; MOE, Rejoice Dankwa, Director, Pre-Tertiary, MOE; Nana Baffour Awuah, Director, PBME, MOE; Insah Shizu, Director, General Administration, MOE; Mavis Asare Donkor and Education and Development Consultant, Independent, Dr Samuel Awuku.
The Minister stated that it was important for the curriculum review to reflect on real life issues that would enable the youth meet the challenges of the 21st century.
“So we expect that your curriculum review will reflect real life. And for instance, I expect that into next year, President John Mahama should be launching a new flagship in education that will be themed: ‘Beyond Academic Skills, Beyond Classroom Learning,’” he said.
Moreover, Mr Iddrisu explained that new curriculum had been grouped into four learning skills which required critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and Communication.
“Then literacy skills, which involves information literacy, and media literacy, including technological literacy, the use of digital tools and digital equipment,” he emphasised.
He said there was a strong move to centre African voices in this effort and the team must take a cue from the United Nations Education, Scientific Organisation (UNESCO) and focus on the general history of Africa.
BY CLIFF EKUFUL
