Implementation of Ghana’s standards-based curriculum by religious and moral education teachers in the Kwahu West Municipality

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.