Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum has said Integrated Science and Core Mathematics would soon be excluded as core subjects for students pursuing Science and other courses in Senior High Schools (SHS).
The Minister says the composition of Integrated Science and Core Maths are being studied in detail by some students due to their elective courses and does not see the need to still make it a prerequisite in gaining admission into further fields of study.
In an interview on Angel FM’s Anɔpa Bɔfoɔ, the Minister said the Ministry is in talks with the various tertiary institutions to amend their general requirements for gaining admission into their schools.
In the status quo, there are four core subjects — English, Mathematics, Integrated Science and Social Studies where one is required to pass at least three of them depending on the programme one wants to study, before gaining admission into a tertiary institution.
But during the One-on-One this morning, Dr. Adutwum told host, Captain Smart, that “indeed you’re an education consultant because there is no need to allow a science student who is doing Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Elective Mathematics still do Core Mathematics and Integrated Science because they’re studying it in detail in their course already.”
“We can let the child study the Core Maths and Integrated Science for one year to get the basics and allow them to continue with their respective electives. Here, we can allow the student to study robotics and other things outside their main course which will broaden their knowledge in other fields and when they get to SHS, they will know what they want to pursue,” he told Captain Smart when he asked him the essence of duplicating subjects in the educational system.
Meanwhile, Dr. Adutwum revealed government is currently constructing Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM-centred) schools which will have 12 Science laboratories each.
He said it is important that labs are made available in each school to foster practical education for the students to better understand what they’re being taught.
The Education Minister said the panacea to curbing the laboratory deficit in the Ghanaian educational spectrum is “virtual laboratory”.
“Each school will have 12 science labs because there must be labs in all the schools for chemistry, physics, biology and others. Here, we read without labs but if you do lab and read, you understand better. If you don’t go to lab in first year, they will become difficult for you,” he indicated.
He said the virtual lab which is called leap frogging is the surest way to compete and keep pace with other countries who are “100 years ahead of us” on the educational ladder.
