Sogakofe: Five-day workshop on new SHS Curriculum.

Story: Benjamin Makafui Attipoe, Sogakope

A five-day capacity-building workshop on the new Senior High School (SHS) curriculum for one hundred and twenty (120) School Improvement Advisors (SIAs) and members of Regional Monitoring Teams (RMTs) from the Volta and Oti Regions, is underway at the Cisneros Hotel at Sogakope in the South Tongu District of the Volta Region. 

These frontline officers are at the centre of education when it comes to monitoring and evaluation hence their role in ensuring the successful implementation of the new curriculum.

Beginning from October, this year, the Ministry of Education (MOE) through the Ghana Education Service (GES) would implement a new standard-based curriculum for Senior High Schools (SHSs) across the country.

The new curriculum represents a significant departure from the current objective-based system which primarily focuses on rote learning and memorization.

The new curriculum is expected to develop a generation of students equipped with the needed skills, competencies and values necessary for academic advancement, success at the workplace and responsible adulthood.

It is against this background that the SIAs and members of the RMTs are being empowered with the needed skills and knowledge to ensure the successful implementation of the new curriculum. 

The workshop which ends on Friday, 12th July, 2024, has been organized by the MOE through the GES in collaboration with the Transforming Teaching Education and Learning (T-TEL) Secretariat.

The facilitators are taking the participants through topics such as introduction to the new curriculum, its structure or content, implementation processes as well as the roles of SIAs and RTMs in its full implementation amongst others. Participants would also look at lesson plans at the school level and how to support teachers to deliver on their mandate to their learners. 

As part of equipping participants on the sexual harassment and awareness creation and prevention training for teachers, they would also be taken through the content of that training so they could understand such policies and be able to support their teachers and learners to ensure that schools are free of sexual harassment.

Opening the meeting, the Volta Regional Director of Education, Mr. Francis Yao Agbemadi stressed the need for the officers to fully commit themselves to the implementation of the new SHS curriculum, starting from the next academic year. In an address read for him by the District Director of Education (DDE) for South Tongu, Mrs. Celestine Sewoenam Korsi-Agordo, the Regional Education Boss noted that the role of stakeholders including the SIAs and RTMs in ensuring the success of the policy, cannot be over-emphasized.

According to Mr. Agbemadi, the presence of the participants at the workshop and their willingness to get themselves empowered, is a demonstration of their commitment to improving standards in the educational space. He called on them not only to share ideas and good practices among themselves but also come out with innovative ways to get the curriculum off the ground in October, this year.

The Oti Regional Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the GES, Mr. Raymond Kubuafor told our newsteam in an interview that the workshop is relevant to the current educational needs and dynamics of the time and called for collaboration from all stakeholders to ensure the success of the new policy.

A School Improvement Advisor, Ms. Yayra Amitor Kumatia as well as a the Volta Regional Head of Supervision of Schools, Mr. Eric Kofi Gamadeku told our newsteam in separate interviews that the workshop would go a long way to positively impact not only their skills and knowledge as SIAs and RTMs but also the teachers and learners who are the ultimate beneficiaries of these policies and programmes. 

END