Education In Ghana, Then and Now…Things are not the same any more…

Education in Ghana has gone through many phases. There have been several changes over time. Before the colonial masters arrived at our shores we were into informal education, that was when the carpenter trained a carpenter, the fisherman trained a fisherman and fetish priest trained a fetish priest.

When they introduced formal education, we adopted it not to let go of our informal education but to run it side by side. As time went by, changes were made to meet up to the demands of the current world with the help of institutions set to review the educational curriculum with its relevance over time.

Review of Curriculum, syllabus

In education, there are curriculum, syllabus, the scheme of work, and lesson plans. These things are what guide teachers in the school and the classroom. The curriculum is made up of subjects to be taught in all schools both public and private, over a period of time and the subjects are also review.

The curriculum has been reviewed a couple of times. We have had some subjects being taken out, others have been updated, others have been merged and currently the Ghana Education Service is planning on taking a subject out of the syllabus and the motive is to lessen the workload of student and also to examine them on subjects that will be beneficial to them at that stage. I couldn’t agree less.

Some few years ago in primary school, I heard about two interesting subjects, they were life skills and music and dance. I heard about them being treated in the Junior Secondary School, it got me excited so I couldn’t wait to get there but it seems I took too long in getting there, the curriculum was reviewed and the two were taken out. I was disappointed though but I still enjoyed Junior High School.

Currently, we have very nice and similarly interesting subjects being taught in our schools, a critical look at them indicates that students are acquiring the necessary knowledge. There are some related subjects that have been merged, I always taught that it wasn’t a better idea but a critical look at it has made me change my mind about it.

The subjects are not the same but similar, that is, they contain elements that can be found in each other’s contents. Subjects like agricultural science and general science have been merged into integrated science, pre-vocational skills and pre-technical skills have been merged to form basic design and technology (BDT).

RELEVANCE OF SUBJECTS IN OUR SCHOOLS

It’s a common Ghanaian notion that our education system does not provide relevant subjects to our children which doesn’t make them innovative as compared to children in America and Europe, but this is not entirely true, subjects taught in our schools groom the children for any task.

• It triggers creative thinking. Subjects like creative arts in the primary school and technical skills in the Junior High School (JHS) can trigger the creative thoughts of students. The contents of such subjects are so practical, a student who develops interest can excel in it and make profits out of it.
• It prepares the children for the global village. A subject like integrated science is a universal subject, the content treated with a Ghanaian student is similar to the content treated with a student outside the country. So a medical student can work in any hospital around the world.
• It provides entrepreneurial skills. A subject like pre-vocational skills treated in the Junior High Schools (JHS) and Home economics treated in the Senior High schools (SHS) has provided students with ideas to start their own business in the catering sector of our economy.

The above stated is not made up to make you have faith in the education system in Ghana but its really the facts as seen by all.