Dr. Edward Appiah
The Director-General of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), Dr. Edward Appiah has attributed the inability of some teachers to function effectively, under the new curriculum, to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr Appiah admitted that the inadequate knowledge of teachers of the new curriculum is due to the Covid-19 pandemic which began immediately after training on the new curriculum began.
Speaking on the Transformation Agenda Series on Education on Class91.3FM, the NaCCA Director-General said: “So I must admit that yes, maybe the preparation was because of the covid… You know, when we finished with this curriculum and we started the training, that was when COVID came.”
He noted that, the training of teachers had a duration of a year, however, that was the exact period the pandemic set in resulting in the closure of schools and subsequently, halting the training process.
“…and we were supposed to stay at home and it cut short the training that we were going. We were going to use that one and a half years to train and then after staying at home for all this while, the President said, please go to school,” he noted.
Dr. Appiah emphasised the several initiatives being undertaken by his outfit to equip teachers and to make up for the lost training time, including developing workshops and training teachers.
“What needs to be done we encourage teachers to do this every week and teachers can attest to the fact that this is an ongoing activity. Beyond that we, in collaboration with National Teaching Council, we are also doing what we call CPDs.”
The NaCCA is an agency under the Ministry of Education, formed under the act of 2020.
It is a combination of the curriculum division and the assessment unit which was previously under the Ghana Education Service (GES).
Their main function is to develop curriculum and assessment standards that seeks to train the pre-tertiary learner; excluding the TVET sector.