The Gaps In The Ongoing Implementation Of The Standard-Based Curriculum

Introduction of the Standard-Based Curriculum in Ghana

Ghana has since the beginning of the 2024 academic year moved away from the objective-based curriculum to the standard-based curriculum at all senior high schools, senior high technical schools and STEM schools. This came at the back of much publicized research on the weaknesses of the objective-based curriculum. Unlike the objective-based curriculum, the standard-based curriculum is characterised by crosscutting issues such as 21^st century skills, ICT and digital integration, gender equality and social inclusion, social and emotional learning as well as special education needs. This makes this curriculum more responsive to the needs of our learners.

Gap Number 1: Low Access to Digital and ICT Resources

As was expected, the implementation of the curriculum has begun after nearly two years of preparing the teachers through professional learning community sessions.  However, a few months into the commencement of the curriculum, some teachers are beginning to identify some gaps that require paying attention to. Whereas the curriculum has an in-built focus on digital literacy and ICT integration, teachers are concerned that the needed facilities including stable internet connectivity and hardware such as projectors, screens, and ICT labs are not in place in many of the schools. This is a concern to many teachers.

Success Stories

This state of affairs notwithstanding, some teachers are integrating ICTs and digital literacy in their lessons. As the Regional Coordinator for the Ghana Society for Education Technology, the implementers of the T-TEL sponsored digital literacy and ICT integration programme in all SHSs/SHTSs and STEM schools, I have come across teachers who are becoming digitally aware and conscious of its integration in the curriculum. I have heard of stories of teachers who are leveraging some Apps to simulate or teach some lessons. For us to scale up the integration agenda, stakeholders must begin to address the resource gaps in the schools.

Gap Number 2: High Student-Teacher Ratio

Another gap is the large class sizes in many of our schools. In many schools, class sizes are beyond eighty students. This according to some teachers interviewed is making it a bit difficult for them to adopt group-based learning in the classrooms. The nature of the classrooms is itself problematic, thereby making movement by the teachers quite difficult. While some teachers are using some ingenious means such as the adoption of the elbow partner approach, some other teachers who are frustrated by the issue are sticking to the age-old teacher-centered approach. There is a recognition that the teacher-centered pedagogies including lectures are no longer fit-for-purpose hence the need to adopt innovative pedagogies such as collaborative learning, experimental learning, experiential learning, talk-for-learning strategies and project-based learning in the new curriculum. Therefore, any effort at returning to the teacher-centered approaches will be counterproductive to the implementation of the standard-based curriculum. So, even as we encourage teachers to be ingenious and innovative in handling these issues, stakeholders must also make efforts to address the huge teacher-student ratios in our schools. This will call for provision of additional classrooms, student dormitories, laboratories and halls.

Gap Number 3: The Promised Tablets Are yet to Reach Some Schools

There is the issue of the learning materials. As part of the implementation of the curriculum, stakeholders made up of NaCCA, GES, teacher unions and T-TEL put together a team of teachers to write learning materials for the learners. Unlike previous reading materials, these learning materials are softcopies and contain hyperlinks and URLs which learners can click on to get access to supplementary materials or videos on the thematic areas. The idea is to have these learning materials uploaded on tablets for each student. The challenge, however, is that at the moment, the tablets have not been supplied to some of the schools, and so the learners do not have access to the materials, For this too, teachers are finding their way out of it by printing copies for the learners, but this means that the learners are losing out on important details contained in the URLs.

Gap Number 4: Misunderstanding of the Percentage Thresholds for the Depths of Knowledge

The penultimate gap is the misunderstanding of the percentage thresholds allotted for the three levels of knowledge. One main focus of this curriculum is the change in assessment. As assessment is what drives learning, stakeholders have attempted to disrupt the assessment systems at this level of education by adopting Norman L. Webb’s depths of knowledge. Webb’s depth of knowledge has four levels. These are:

• Level 1 – Recall & Reproduction
• Level 2 – Skills concept
• Level 3 – Strategic thinking
• Level 4 – Extended thinking

For the purpose of this curriculum, however, WAEC, NaCCA and other stakeholders have agreed to adopt the first three levels of knowledge leaving out the fourth level.

For effective, measurement of learning, percentage thresholds have been assigned to each of the levels. Level one carries thirty percent (30%) of the assessment marks, level two carries forty percent (40%) of the marks and level three has thirty percent (30%) of the marks totaling hundred percent. While most teachers have understood these thresholds, it has been observed that some teachers do not understand how to do the allocations especially where they have to set multiple assessment tasks – multiple choice questions [MCQs], objective test items and essay type questions under the same level. In this scenario, some teachers get confused regarding how to allocate the marks.

Others also interpret this to mean that they will have to set thirty or forty assessment tasks which may include essay types, MCQs and objective test items for a given level. They do not for example understand that for level one which demands thirty percent of the marks, they will have to set say fifteen multiple choice questions and three essay type questions (to be marked over five marks each). This will make it fifteen plus fifteen, thereby giving the teacher thirty marks under level one or level three, but based on the learning indicators.

As assessment is a critical component of this curriculum, stakeholders must take steps to address this issue at this early stage before it becomes endemic.

Gap Five: Confusion Regarding Subject Combinations

Finally, there are gaps about subject combinations. The first gap is that some teachers are not able to make a distinction between some elective subjects and core subjects. The status of subjects such as Religious and Moral Education, ICT and Agriculture Science is not too clear to some teachers. Another gap is that some schools did not adhere to the criteria in the subject combinations. Some teachers are also worried that learners are offering up to twelve subjects internally. It is important, therefore to address these issues very early in the day to bring uniformity and standardization in the implementation process.   

Conclusion

For seamless implementation of the curriculum, stakeholders will have to take steps to equip the schools with these tablets, computer laboratories and internet connectivity. This curriculum is a game changer for education in Ghana. Its success is, however, a factor of how much commitment we show to digital literacy, resource supply to the schools and staying the course in the use of innovative pedagogies.