CURRENT ISSUES ABOUT THE COMMON CORE PROGRAMME

As we all know, schools will be re-opened on Tuesday and hopefully learning processes will also continue. Since we are commencing a new academic year, each learner would be promoted to the next class. This is to say that children who were in KG2 would move to Basic one, and those who were in Basic 6 would also move to JHS 1 or Basic 7, likewise the JHS 1 students.

Let us also remind ourselves that just last year, all Basic schools in the country started the Common Core Program. Our current JHS 1 students(soon will going to JHS 2) started with this very important programme. As per the details of this Common Core Program, these JHS 1 one students had all the contents and methodologies changed to meet the demands of our ill economy.

The government had to spend huge sums of money to train all JHS teachers across the country before the introduction of this program. As we speak, teachers have not laid hands on all the needed materials to teach these CCP subjects. Realistically, this is causing a huge deficit in teaching and learning scope, since most of these teachers find it difficult to handle some of the sub-strands(topics). And no one is raising concerns about that.

Apart from this problem, there is another BIG QUESTION I want to ask, ARE THE CURRENT FORM 1 STUDENTS (THOSE GOING TO FORM 2 – THOSE WHO STARTED THE CCP) going to continue the CCP in form 2?)  We understand that our form 2 students are learning the objective-based curriculum(the old one). So when the form 1 students move to JHS 2, are they going to learn the old curriculum or the new one? I believe most of us will say, they will learn the new one. If my guess is true, then we have failed as a country.

Have the curriculum planners made provisions to accommodate the soon-to-be JHS 2 students in the
next class?

In this case, I can say OUR CURRICULUM PLANNERS HAVE FAILED THE COMMON CORE PROGRAMME

KWABENA MINTAH
TEACHER
0242163208