The Ghana Education Service (GES) has announced the introduction of a new school uniform for Junior High School (JHS) students.
Students are expected to start wearing the new school uniform from next academic year, 2019 – 2020.
The Director-General of the GES, Prof Kwasi Opoku Amankwa announced this at a press conference in Accra on Thursday morning.
The new uniform for JHS students being displayed at the press conference.
Why new uniform?
“The idea is for them [JHS pupils] to start seeing themselves as secondary school students; they are in lower secondary [now]” he explained.
He argued that the current education structure is such that pupils in the JHS level are part of primary school “so they tend to see themselves as primary school students. The idea is to psychologically let them see themselves as in secondary school”
The current uniform, locally referred to as Konkonte and nkate nkwan (groundnut soup) and worn by pupils at the basic level in public schools, was introduced over 30 years ago by the government.
Meanwhile, officials of GES are expected to give details on the new uniform, particularly whether the cost will be for parents or government, at a news conference in Accra today.
The news conference, which will be used to officially launch the new curricula for basic schools, will also create a platform for the GES to address the issue of examination printing fees.
Also, it will brief Ghanaians about a GES-SIC insurance policy.
New curricula
The revised curriculum will put a premium on reading, writing, arithmetic and creativity.
The decision to revise the curricular for KG and Primary schools comes about 12 years after the old curricular was introduced.
According to chairman of the GES Council, although there are some new additions to the curricula, other aspects have also been remoulded.
Although the focus now is on kindergarten (KG) to primary six, the GES says other levels of the education sector would be added in due course.
In line with implementation, one teacher from each of the country’s districts will undergo training on the new curricula.