Challenges of Curriculum Design and its Implications on Policy: The Case of the Junior High School (JHS) Teaching Subjects in Ghana

Abstract

The educational landscape though serves as the bedrock for human resource development, it still has challenging academic experiences in Junior High Schools in Ghana. The realization is that, transitional stages of schooling seem not to have curriculum alignment that reflect tertiary education programme. Yearning for flexibility, harmonization and synchronization of the curriculum, the paper seeks to explore missing interest areas, talents in order to discover inspired paths that underpin enrichment of the school curriculum. To deepen high school experience for appropriate and best practices in human capital development, the researchers examine curriculum design and its implications on policy, the case of the JHS teaching subjects in Ghana. This engagement adopts the combined approach using the discursive method and descriptive analysis. Participants of the study include 100 students, 10 teachers, 5 circuit supervisors, and 5 curriculum experts of the Cape Coast Metropolis. Interviews are the main instruments used for the qualitative analysis while graphical representations and achievement tests are conducted for students from the ten schools. In the investigations, the study discovers that, there is no curriculum alignment in some of the teaching subjects taught at the JHS level despite their potential areas for human capital development. It is recommended that, the curriculum at the JHS level should be revised to reflect the best practices, prospects and opportunities for students.