Abstract:
The study sought to investigate the fidelity of implementation of Ghana’s
Standards-Based Curriculum (SBC)by Religious and Moral Education
teachers in the Kwahu West Municipality of the Eastern Region, Ghana,as
well as assess the challenges to the implementation efforts by the teachers.
The convergent parallel design under mixed method was adopted for the
study. Using the census and purposive sampling procedure, 181 respondents
consisting of 175 RME teachers and six (6) head teachers from the public
primary schools in the Kwahu West Municipality were selected for the study.
Questionnaire, interview guide and observation guide were used to gather the
requisite data for the study. The data was analysed using frequencies,
percentages, mean and standard deviation, and thematic approach. The study
found out that the RME teachers were somewhat prepared for the
implementation of the Standards-Based Religious and Moral Education
Curriculum. Again, RME teachers were to a very large extent implementing
the key features of the Standard-Based Religious and Moral Education
Curriculum. Teachers were confronted with a number of challenges in the
implementation of the standards-based RME curriculum including: inadequate
teacher training prior to curriculum implementation,inadequate head teacher
support, unavailability of ICT tools, among others. The study recommended
that, the Ministry of Education (MoE), the Ghana Education Service (GES),
and the head teachers organise detailed and frequent in-service training
programmes for the RME teachers. Again, ICT tools should be made available
to teachers andit should be ensured that teachers have adequate knowledge on
application of ICT tools.
