NaCCA rolls out ‘Common Core Curriculum’ in Senior High Schools

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) following positive feedback from stakeholders in the education sector says are all set for the roll-out of the Common Core Curriculum in second-cycle schools.

Speaking to Daily Graphic, Director-General of NaCCA, Professor Edward Appiah said his outfit had completed a trial test of the curriculum adding that a second trial test is currently being carried out in 31 schools across the country.

“The trial tests, which are done every two weeks, will continue until August, and the academic year will come alive in September

We are doing the trial test in all the 38 subjects, including the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects,” the Director-General of the Council, Professor Edward Appiah told the Graphic newspaper.

Describing the finalisation process of the Common Core Curriculum, he said NaCCA met with Vice-Chancellors to ensure subjects under the Common Core met the expectation of the subject combination in the tertiary institutions.

“When we met them for the third time, they were excited with the new development, even though they came with some views that they would want us to consider, which we have wholeheartedly taken and will look at it,” he stated.

Prof explained that even though it had met with the vice-chancellors, the doors of NaCCA were still open for further engagements, adding that it was now left with the vice-chancellors to start the processes of realigning the subjects.

On the nature of the new curriculum, the NaCCA Director-General said it was based on subjects and not programmes as was the case over the years, stressing that the programme-based curriculum was restrictive for the students.

“It did not give the students flexibility, and this concern was among others we got from some stakeholders even before we embarked on the review of the curriculum

One of the concerns the universities gave then was that they need to have students’ subjects so flexible such that when they come to the university, they can have multiple programmes,” the National Curriculum Council Director noted.

He added that even though the new curriculum was not programme-specific but tailored towards subjects, it was done in such a way that “even if you are into Home Economics as a programme, you still can have some other subjects that allow flexibility for switching.”

“What we are left to do, which is critical, is to engage the professional bodies such as the Ghana Institution of Engineers, the Ghana Medical and Dental Council, the Pharmaceutical Council, among others, because they also have a stake in the courses being done in the universities,” he said.