By Florence Afriyie Mensah
Fumesua (Ash), Sept. 12, GNA – The Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, a Deputy Minister of Education, has underscored the need for teachers to be guided by concepts and skills of differentiated learning to achieve effective learning outcomes at all levels.
He explained that each learner had different abilities and challenges, it was therefore, important that teachers moved away from the “one size fits all” approach of knowledge impartation to a differentiated approach to make progress.
Differentiated learning, according to Rev. Ntim Fordjour, was one tactic that tailored instruction to accommodate individual learner’s strengths, needs, and learning preferences, and had gained prominence as an effective pedagogical strategy.
Addressing the opening of a three-day workshop for educational leaders at Fumesua in the Ejisu Municipality in the Ashanti Region, Rev. Ntim-Fordjour stated that no child must be left behind in the course of education.
He said: “We want to ensure that every child gets the opportunity to receive a quality education regardless of what their challenge might be, each one must receive a quality education.
“We will continue to do the interventions that are working, spread out training, use phoenix-based approaches and ensure that every deficiency identified from data at district and school levels will be corrected.
The training, which brought together directors of education, heads of schools, district educators of differentiated learning, and school improvement support officers (SISOs) drawn from across Ghana was to equip them with leadership strategies to support paradigm shifts that change brings.
It was put together by the National Teaching Council in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Rev. Ntim Fordjour said the educational sector in Ghana wanted to witness a rapid improvement in learning outcomes which was why educational leaders were deemed important agents to be empowered for onward knowledge transfer into the various classrooms.
He cited that in 2015, the Early Grade Reading Assessment conducted showed that only two percent of pupils in class two could read and this propelled the educational system to deploy various trainings and interventions.
“We have seen improvement. When measured through the National Standardized Test, there is now a remarkable improvement from the two percent to 54 percent of learners at class four reading.
The target now is by the time every child in this country gets to age 10, the child must be able to read proficiently,” he argued.
Mr. Lawrence Sarpong, Deputy Registrar, National Teaching Council, who took participants through leadership roles, functions and characteristics urged them to re-strategize to accommodate change to become effective leaders.
Ms. Christin Lucille McConnel, Chief of Education at UNICEF Ghana, said UNICEF remained committed to partnering with stakeholders to expand differentiated learning implementation in Ghana.
She said the partnership could help advocate strengthened government structures, greater capacity for transformation, and improvement of students’ learning outcomes.
GNA