Arabic, French compulsory new basic school curriculum

Arabic and French languages will be taught as compulsory subjects in the newly outdoored Ghana Education Service (GES) curriculum for basic education in the country. This follows some reforms in the sector which have among other things redefined basic education to include Senior High School. Ahead of the commencement of the new curriculum this September, Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Education Vincent Ekow Assafuah highlighted some of the key reforms carried out. According to him, the decision to include Arabic in the compulsory subjects of study was informed by the fact that “Arabic is a globally spoken language than any other language”. While French has been scheduled to be taught from Class Four (4) all through to Junior High School 3, no time has yet been set for the commencement of Arabic. The new curriculum also exempts classes 1,3,5 JHS 1 and JHS 3 from writing end-of-term examinations. Some topics, now known as sub-strands, have also been eliminated altogether from the curriculum. For instance, “The life cycle of Okro” which used to be a topic in Class Six will be no more. Mr. Assafuah also mentioned the addition of compulsory one-hour extra-curricular activities like talks, sensitization, Guidance and Counselling among others for pupils. The format of teachers’ lesson notes have also been modified. By Juliet Etefe|editors.3news.com|Ghana