Chairman of the National Council for Curriculum & Assessment (NaCCA) Professor Kwame Osei Kwarteng says Dr. J.B Danquah was mentioned several times in the new primary school curriculum because of his intellectual contribution to the country’s history.
This is in response to some critics who have raised questions with the new curriculum, stating that Dr. J.B Danquah was given more prominence in the curriculum than Ghana’s first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
Addressing the issue on TV3‘s Midday Live on Wednesday, April 17, Professor Osei Kwarteng said a lot of reference was made to Dr. J.B Danquah as a result of a research he conducted chronicling the history of Akans and some other tribes in Ghana.
“He is not mentioned just because of anything, he is mentioned because of his intellectual input. He did a research on the origin of Akans…” Professor Osei Kwarteng stated.
The NaCCA Chairman added that most of the critics raising issues with the Council projecting J.B Danquah are only engaged in politics rather than addressing real issues.
“Anybody who says we are trying to project J.B Danquah over Kwame Nkrumah is doing that for political reasons, he has not perused the document.”
According to him, history was initially not part of the primary school curriculum, but the Council included it in the new one to allow pupils get familiar with Ghana’s history.
He also said history has not been part of the primary education curriculum and that it has become necessary because times have changed, and the Council is seeking to ensure that Ghanaian pupils are at par with their colleagues elsewhere.
“The reason why we are making history a part of the curriculum is based on one, because of the AU provision, the AU educational commission…they are saying that by 2025 every African country should include in its curriculum the history and culture of Africa. By implication, you have to study your own history before you move to the African history.
“We are now in the digital age, so we must also adjust, so this was one of the reasons,” Professor Osei Kwarteng explained.
He also debunked assertions in the public that the Council did not consult stakeholders before coming out with a new curriculum.
“We broadly consulted. In the first place, when the committee was constituted and chaired by me, we invited stakeholders in education who did presentations to us before we came out with a framework.
“That is the new standard basic curriculum framework, which is based on the presentations that they made before we wrote our final report and submitted it to the ministry [of Education] for submission to the cabinet for adoption and recommendation,” he added.
Source: 3news.com|Ghana