The National Council of Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) on Wednesday, November 20, 2019, started the item development for Kindergarten to Basic 6 (KG-B6) and the instructional Materials development concurrently at Ada in the Greater Accra Region.
The Executive Secretary of NaCCA, Dr. Prince Hamid Armah in his opening remarks, reiterated that the review of the Standard Based Curriculum, which started from KG to Basic six (6), was implemented in September 2019. Like all reforms, there are associated materials that must accompany the implementation process hence the workshops.
The Executive Secretary also stressed that assessment plays a very important role in achieving the educational outcomes. As such, in order to avoid over-concentration on students preparing and writing examination just for writing the examination without actually gaining from the learning experience, NaCCA has decided to review the whole assessment process that should go with the new Standard Based Curriculum. It is, therefore, imperative for NaCCA to develop what is called National Pre-Tertiary Learning Assessment Framework (NPLAF).
The document is in the process of completion and prior to it being ready, there is the need to develop what is called Item Bank that will serve as a repository of information on assessment for teachers to assess and be able to use as far as the implementation of the new curriculum is concerned.
He also added that going forward; there should be occasions where the new curriculum will talk about building competencies, core skills, emphasizing doing as against just merely knowledge and understanding.
Dr. Armah charged the participants who are to work on the item development and instructional materials to use the experiences they have acquired for many years to develop a comprehensive item bank and instructional materials that will go a long way to help improve learning outcomes.
What guidelines does the NaCCA have authors for writing textbooks or books for the various specific subject areas to accord with the Curriculum delivery envisaged?
(Areas for Textbooks and Supplementary readings )
My interest is in the Creative Arts and Technology, as well as cultural heritage thematic areas.