An Interrogation of the Design and Development of a Relevant Curriculum for Ghana’s Polytechnic Find Programmes: Key Stakeholder’s Perspectives

Abstract

Bridging the gap between academic knowledge and the transformational needs of the society is the core concern of the tertiary TVET (Kelly, 2009, Maclean, 2007). As a first measure to assure relevance, the collaboration of key stakeholder was recommended for the design and development of the curriculum for HND level programmes in Ghana’s polytechnics (URC, 1991). Yet, the relevance of the sector’s curriculum has remained a major concern, because of its volatility and contextualization in the needs it seeks to address (Varghese, 2009). This study therefore sought to explore the design and development of? relevant curriculum for Ghana’s HND programmes; using the HND Electrical and Mechanical Engineering programmes as cases in point. Through the hermeneutic-phenomenological approach, interview and documentary analysis data were gathered from a variety of stakeholders. In all, a total of 17 participants and four focus groups were sampled for the study. The major finding from the study was that the type of collaboration employed to design and develop the HND curriculum eludes convergence; a critical element in the attainment of relevance. Some major consequences of this situation have, thus, been non-consensus in the need(s), content of knowledge and pedagogic strategies the HND level employs, and the disassociation of some stakeholders from the HND curriculum. It is therefore recommended that the convergence of representatives of stakeholders at the stages of need(s) definition and generation of strategies to adopt should be considered in all the key stages of the curriculum process, if relevance of the curriculum is sought for.