The Ghana Education Service (GES) will from September this year, introduce a new standards-based curriculum to be rolled out from kindergarten to Class 6 in primary schools. 

This curriculum according to President Nana Akufo-Addo, has drawn upon the best practices from all over the world. 

Delivering his third State of the Nation Address to Parliament on Thursday, the President said the new curriculum will focus on making the “Ghanaian children confident, innovative, creative-thinking, digitally-literate, well-rounded, patriotic citizens.”

According to him, Mathematics, Science, Reading, Writing and Creativity will be at the heart of the new curriculum.

The President said poverty should not be an excuse for any child not to reach their full potential.

“It, therefore, warms my heart that we are now able to say that education in the public sector is free from Kindergarten to Senior High School, and, that this year, legislation would be passed to redefine basic education to include Senior High School,” he said. 

Regarding technical education, President Akufo-Add announced that all is set for the construction of 10 state-of-the-art Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) Centres this year.

“For far too long, we have preached about the importance of TVET without doing very much to demonstrate this importance. We send or urge young people to go to poorly equipped TVET centres, and we are surprised that they are not keen,” he said.

He added that the new TVET centres would be world-class, and attractive to assure young people that they are not being sent to second best options.  

President Akufo-Addo said his government is also bent on demystifying science, mathematics and technology.

As a result, he said 10 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) centres are being built around the country to provide support for the introduction of STEM into basic education after the completion of a successful pilot phase.

“We can be sure, therefore, that Ghana’s young people will be able to acquire skills that would put them at par with their peers anywhere in the world,” he said.

He announced that the importance of science, technology and innovation has led him to appoint a Presidential Advisory Council on Science, Technology and Innovation (PACSTI). 

The Council is to advise the President on how to infuse the application of science and technology in the development of the country, headed by a distinguished scientist, Prof. Edward Ayensu.

The President also disclosed that “we shall bring before Parliament this year, a tertiary education policy Bill that will bring all the public universities under a common law, and make the administration of the public universities less cumbersome.”