OBJECTIVES AND CONTENT OF EDUCATION

Pre-school Education

This level of education covers the ages of 2-6 years. It is made of 1 1/2 to 2 years Nursery and 1 1/2 to 2 years Kindergarten, which together constitute pre-School Education. It is not compulsory. Pre-School Education has the following objectives:

i. to provide a home substitute for young children and offer them opportunities for overall personal development;

ii. To provide opportunities for holistic development of the child through organized individual and group play activities;

iii. To create awareness in the children of their national heritage and culture;

iv. To pre-dispose the child to conditions of formal education in order to accelerate the learning process during formal schooling;

v. To lay a solid foundation for all-round learning.

Basic Education

The national policy on Basic Education stipulates that all children from the age of six should receive nine years formal education as a matter of right.

The nine-year basic Education programme is made up of six years Primary Education and three years Junior Secondary Education.

Primary Education

a) Primary Education, which is of 6 years' duration, constitutes the foundation of the educational system.

b) Primary Education has the following major objectives among others:

i) Numeracy and literacy, i.e. the ability to count, use numbers, read, write and communicate effectively;

ii) Laying the foundation for inquiry and creativity;

iii) Development of sound moral attitude and a healthy appreciation of our cultural heritage and identity;

iv) Development of the ability to adapt constructive to a changing environment;

v) Laying the foundation for the development of manipulative and life skills that will prepare the individual pupils to function effectively to their own advantage as well as that of their community;

vi) inculcating in the pupils good citizenship education as a basic for effective participation in national development.

c) These objectives have been incorporated into a revised national curriculum comprising the following subjects for all Primary Schools:

Mathematics	English
Science	Agriculture
Social Studies	Life Skills
Cultural Studies	Physical Education
Ghanaian Languages.

Junior Secondary School

a) The Junior Secondary School forms an integral part of compulsory Basic Education; It is both terminal and continuing.

b) The curriculum of the junior Secondary School has been reviewed and expanded to include practical skills orientation. Consequently, in addition to the general subjects, the curriculum has been designed to provide opportunities for pupils to acquire basic pre-technical, pre-vocational and basic life skills which will enable the pupils to:

i. discover their aptitudes and potentialities so as to induce in them the desire for sel-improvement;

ii. appreciate the use of the hand as well as the mind and make them creative.

c) The following subjects comprise the curriculum for the Junior Secondary School:

Mathematics	Basic Technical Skills
English Language	Technical Drawing
Science	Vocational Skills
Agricultural Science	Cultural Studies
Social Studies	Life Skills
French (Optional)	Ghanaian Language
	Physical Education

d) Every pupil is expected to study all the subjects. Twelve vocational subjects have been approved for study in the junior Secondary Schools throughout the country. Each school is required to select for study two of those subjects for which materials are available locally.

e) The jonior Secondary School course forms the major part of the all-embracing educational reform programme, which took off in September, 1987. The main thrust of the on-going educational reforms is the vocationalization of education - i.e. making education vocationally oriented by the introduction of pre-technical, pre-vocational skills right from the Basic Education level.

SECOND CYCLE INSTITUTIONS

More than 35 percent of the pupils who complete the Junior Secondary Schools enter second-cycle institutions, of which there are two kinds, namely:

- Senior Secondary Schools (public and private)
- Technical Institutes (public and private)

However, in the case of the second-cycle institutions under the Ghana Education Service alone, the total annual intake of Junior Secondary School graduates is about 356% as can be seen from Table 3 below.

Table 3

Intake Into Second-Cycle Institution
Under the Ghana Education Service

YEAR	5A) Basic Ed. Cert Exam Candidates.	INTAKE			% = 100 D/A
		(B) Sec. Schools	(C) Tech. Institut.	(D) TOTAL
1991	147,249	49,277	4,022	53,299	36.20
1992	165,359	54,618	4,320	53,938	36.64
1993	181,824	58,537	4,492	63,029	34.66

Senior Secondary School

Education at this level is designed to cater for students of ages 16 to 18 years and lasts for three years after the nine years of Basic Education. As part of the educational reforms, the Senior Secondary School has been designed to offer the students the opportunity to build on the foundation laid at the Basic Education level and to strengthen the general intellectual knowledge and skills that are required for occupations and for further education. The three-year programme is to cater for various aptitudes in the fields of technical, vocational, agricultural, business and general education.

A curriculum relevant to the socio-economic development and manpower requirements of the country has been developed for the Senior Secondary School. The Senior Secondary School system has replaced the trditional 7-year (i.e. 5-year Secondary + 2-year Sixth Form) course. It has the following objectives.

i) To reinforce and build on knowledge, skills and attitudes acquired at the Junior Secondary School level;

ii) To produce well-developed and productive individuals equipped with the qualities of responsible leadership capable of fitting into a scientific and technological world and to contribute to the socio-economic development of their own areas and the country as a whole;

iii) To increase the relevance of the content of the curriculum to the culture and socio-economic problems of the country;

iv) To provide increased access to second-cycle education.

Senior Secondary School students study seven core subjects:

a) English
b) Mathematics
c) Science
d) Agriculture and Environmental Studies
e) Life Skills
f) Ghanaian Language
g) Physical Education (which is not examined externally in the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination).

In addition each student selects three subjects from a wide range of programme-options consisting of three subjects to be studied under one of five specialized programmes, namely

i. Agriculture Programme
ii. Technical Programme
iii. Business programme
iv. Vocational Programme
v. General (Arts & Science) Programme.

Up to 1990, secondary schools were offering predominantly Arts and Science subjects, but from 1991 the education reform programme has introduced into the curriculum vocationally oriented programmes, namely Technical, Vocational, Business and Agriculture. (See Table 4 below for intakes into vocationally oriented programmes as compared with general programmes for the period 1991-1993).

Table 4 Comparative Intakes Into Vocationally Oriented And General Programmes In Senior Secondary Schools

YEAR OF INTAKE	No Admitted Into Voc. Oriented prog. (i.e. tech. voc. business, agric)	No. Admitted into gener. prog. (arts and science)	Total Intake	% Vocational Oriented Programmes Total Intake
1991	29,689	19,588	49,277	60.25
1992	31,230	23,388	54,618	57.18
1993	34,199	24,338	58,537	58.42

Tertiary Education

In pursuing an overall national education reform programme, the Government of Ghana has since 1986 reviewed the tertiary level of education and has on the basis of the review, articulated objectives for tertiary education which have led to policy-based actions.

The following objectives and planned activties provide an insight into the trends for developing tertiary education.

a) Tertiary Education is to be efficiently managed with the added concern of making it cost-effective. In this respect, schemmes to increase efficiency in the utilization of space, resources and personnel will be ensured.

b) National institutions are to be set up to co-ordinate and ensure uniformity particularly in the areas of admissions, accreditation and overall planning and evaluation.

c) At the institutional level, course structures are to be adjusted to better accommodate working persons, provide viable linkages between different types of programmes within the sub-sector, imbue students with a development orientation and methodology, and provide greater relevance in course content.

d) In view of the need to expand access to tertiary education to meet expansion at basic and secondary levels, and furthermore to diversify programmes at the tertiary level, the following paragraphs provide information on measures being taken:

i) The implementation of the New Educational Reform Programme has increased the student population at the pre- tertiary education level. The tertiary educational institutions should therefore be in a position to admit an increasing number of qualified Senior Secondary School graduates. Hence the expansion and upgrading of the Polytechnics and the Regional Colleges Apllied Acrts, Science and Technology (RECAAST) institutions into the tertiary sector.

ii) The new educational reforms have definite implications for teacher preparation. Teachers form the key factor in the implementation process throughout the system, and the success of the reforms will depend largely on their competence and commitment. Consequently, reforms are also being introduced into teacher education to fit into the pre-university programmes adequately, in this direction, the teacher training programme has been restructured and the academic level for the intake into Teacher Training Colleges has been raised to '0' Level as the basic entry qualification.

iii) There is no doubt that facilities and resources at the tertiary level will have to be enhanced in tandem with relevant schemes for extension of services and improvement in the quality of education. Initial steps have already been taken towards the improvement of library facilities, increased supply of educational materials and equipment and provision of instructional facilities to enhance instructional capacity. Plans are advanced for the provision of other facilities to cater for non-resident students.

iv) Attention is being paid to the crucial area of staff development to provide an adequate supply of qualified personnel to carry out the reform programme.

v) In spite of increased government inputs into the tertiary system, further support is required from nongovernmental sources. Specific programmes for cost-sharing include the promotion of income-generating activities by institutions, the establishment of government bursaries and scholarships and the promotion of non-governmental sponsorship for students.

Special Education

Special education for the handicapped is one of the major concerns of the Ministry of Education. This is because it is considered that handicapped people have the same needs as others to enable them to lead a fuller life. They also have potentials that can be tapped for the benefit of society. The education policy with regard to the handicapped is to train them to be able to fit into society and function normally and independently. As a result, people who are not severely handicapped are being encouraged to take advantage of the available opportunities for fitting into normal institutions, after acquiring basic education in special schools set up for them.

In pursuit of these goals, there is a Division of Special Education within the Ghana Education Service whose function is to develop, supervise and evaluate programmes in special schools. All children who are found to be capable of integrating into normal schools are encouraged and supported to do so. The Ghana Education Service recognizes the important role of parents and peripatetic teachers to work together towards an early identification and intervention in handicapped situations.

Accessibility to education for handicapped persons is available at all levels. At the basic level there are seventeen Special Schools - twelve for the deaf, three for the mentally handicapped and two for the blind. At the Senior Secondary level, a Secondary/Technical School and a Secondary/Vocational School have been set up for the deaf, whilst some selected secondary schools within the public system have been equipped to serve as integrated secondary schools for the blind.

Facilities have also been set up at the University of Cape Coast to enable blind students pursue degree courses.

An efficient service for handicapped children requires for its operation competent staff. The College of Special Education, one of the diploma-awarding colleges that in November, 1992 formed the nucleus of the University College of Education at Winneba, ensures the fulfilment of this principle. Attempts are also being made to bring about the production of more trained teachers for the handicapped. This is being done through the introduction of elements of special education into the curriculum of all teacher training colleges in the country.

NON-FORMAL EDUCATION

Non-formal Education in Ghana has been placed on the same footing as the formal system of education, following a recommendation of the 1977 Conference of African Ministers in Lagos for the "establishment of national councils or boards for non-formal education and structures within their Ministries of Education for the purpose of promoting non-formal education as an integral part of the national education system".

Under the Educational Reform Programme launched in 1987 by the Government, the Ministry of Education established the new Division of Non-Formal Education to work through Non-formal Education agencies to support a national Mass Literacy and Social Change Programme (MASSLIP).

Non-Formal Education covers organized and semi-organized educational activities operating outside the regular structure and routines of the formal education sub-sector and aimed at serving a great variety of learning needs of different sub-groups of the population, both young and old.

The Non-Formal Education Division of the Ministry of Education is charged with programming and co-ordinating the large social sector with a view to revitalizing teaching aids, facilitators, training, distance learning as well as community-based self-employment opportunities in order to make society at large functionally literate.

The main aim of the Division is to wipe out illiteracy by the year 2000 by embarking upon functional literacy programmes in the local languages as well as English.