Lee Ocran, Education Minister-designate

Teachers at Cape Coast Amanful Catholic Boys Junior High School (JHS) have threatened to strike if the Metropolitan Assembly fails to stop people from dumping refuse on campus and using the facility as a place of convenience.

Mrs. Georgina Nkum, Head teacher of the school issued the threat on behalf of her colleagues, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency after a church service at the Amanful St Joseph Catholic Church to climax this year’s Catholic Education week celebration.

He said most teachers have also threatened to leave the school. She said numerous complaints to the Metropolitan Assembly had felt on deaf ears, thereby making teaching and learning unbearable.

Mrs. Nkum said the school compound is also used as a football park for the surrounding communities, while the walls are defaced with posters.

It is also any of the words belonging to this part of speech, such as white in the phrase a white house.

Function of Adjectives

1. Adjectives are invariable.

They do not change their form depending on the gender or number of the noun.

A hot potato                            Some hot potatoes

1.  To emphasise or strengthen the meaning of an adjective use ‘very’ or ‘really’:

A very hot potato                    Some really hot potatoes.

POSITION OF ADJECTIVES

a) Usually in front of a noun: A beautiful girl.

b) After verbs like “to be”, “to seem”, “to look”, “to taste”:

Examples

The girl is beautiful

You look tired

This meat tastes funny.

c) After the noun: in some fixed expressions:

Examples

The Princess Royal

The President elect

a court martial

d) After the noun with the adjectives involved, present, concerned:

Examples

I want to see the people involved/concerned (= the people who have something to do with the matter)

Here is a list of the people present (= the people who were in the building or at the meeting)

Be careful! When these adjectives are used before the noun they have a different meaning:

An involved discussion = detailed, complex

A concerned father = worried, anxious

The present situation = current, happening now

Adjectives can also:

1. Describe feelings or qualities:

Examples

He is a lonely man

 They are honest people

1. Give nationality or origin:

Examples

Pierre is French

This clock is German

Our house is Victorian

1. Tell more about a thing’s characteristics:

Examples

A wooden table.

The knife is sharp.

1. Tell us about age:

Examples

He’s young man

 My coat is very old

1. Tell us about size and measurement:

Examples

 John tall man.

 This is a very long film.

1. Tell us about colour:

Examples

Paul wore a red shirt.

The sunset was crimson and gold.

1. Tell us about material/what something is made of:

Examples

It was a wooden table

 She wore a cotton dress

1. Tell us about shape:

Examples

A rectangular box

A square envelope

1. Express a judgement or a value:

Examples

 A fantastic film

 Grammar is boring.

ORDER OF ADJECTIVES

Where a number of adjectives are used together, the order depends on the function of the adjective. The usual order is:

Value/opinion, Size, Age/Temperature, Shape, Colour, Origin,

Material value/opinion            —        delicious, lovely, charming

Size                                       —       small, huge, tiny

Age/Temperature                    —        old, hot, young

Shape  round                           —        square, rectangular

Colour                                     —        red, blonde, black

Origin                          —        Swedish, Victorian, Chinese

Material                                   —        plastic, wooden, silver

Examples:

A lovely old red post-box

Some small round plastic tables

Some charming small silver ornaments

To Be Continued

The Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr. Samuel Sarpong, said they should do everything to ensure that meals for the school children are prepared under hygienic conditions and well-balanced to improve their health.

He said the food should also be ready on time to prevent any disruption of teaching and learning in the schools.

Mr. Sarpong made the call at the opening of a two-day orientation workshop for caterers of the programme in the Ashanti Region at the Prempeh Assembly Hall in Kumasi.

The goal was to expose them to best management and health practices.

Mr. Sarpong said all should accept to play their expected roles well to help realize the twin objective of boosting school enrolment and make the economic situation of the local farmers better.

He expressed dissatisfaction with the conduct of some stakeholders whose actions and inactions, he said, were making it difficult to achieve the set objectives.

He urged the participants to take the workshop seriously for the success and sustenance of the programme.

Madam Anima Wilson, Deputy Regional Minister, spoke of the government’s determination to strengthen the management of the feeding programme.—GNA

The Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Directorate of Education has ordered final year students of the Junior High School (JHS) in the metropolis to sign an undertaking with their parents as witnesses to be of good behaviour until they write the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

Metropolitan Director of Education, Nana Kofi Adjei Mbeah told GNA that the move was to check truancy among the students.

He said reports had indicated that as soon as final year students of the JHS were registered for the BECE, a majority of them refused to attend classes but returned to write the papers when examination started.

The Metropolitan Education Director noted that such acts of truancy impacted poorly on their performance as they deliberately refused to attend classes to learn what was ahead of them.

He said parents and guardians should be held responsible for the continuous absence of their wards from school since it was their onerous duty to monitor their school attendance.

To address the situation, the Education Directorate designed a form specifying detailed information about the students and their wards, which should be signed by students with the parents and guardians witnessing.

The form bears information like name, profession, hometown of parents/guardians as well as that of candidates and their date of birth, among other things.

Nana Mbeah asked teachers and their heads to report any truancy for immediate action to be taken as contained in the declaration form.

He reminded the head teachers not to register candidates from different school or students in JHS One and Two or face severe sanctions by the GES.

Nana Mbeah equally encouraged the head teachers to submit their register on time, warning that any delay and wrong submission of data would attract penalty by the West Africa Examinations Council (WEAC) and disciplinary action by the GES.

The Metropolitan Education Directorate recorded a score of 62.49 per cent in the previous BECE, he stated—GNA

ICT is an acronym that stands for Information Communications Technology

However, apart from explaining an acronym, there is not a universally accepted definition of ICT? Why? Because the concepts, methods and applications involved in ICT are constantly evolving on an almost daily basis. It is difficult to keep up with the changes – they happen so fast.

Let’s focus on the three words behind ICT:

- INFORMATION
- COMMUNICATIONS
- TECHNOLOGY

A good way to think about ICT is to consider all the uses of digital technology that already exist to help individuals, businesses and organisations use information.

ICT covers any product that will store, retrieve, manipulate, transmit or receive information electronically in a digital form. For example, personal computers, digital television, email, robots.

So ICT is concerned with the storage, retrieval, manipulation, transmission or receipt of digital data. Importantly, it is also concerned with the way these different uses can work with each other.

In business, ICT is often categorised into two broad types of product: -

(1) The traditional computer-based technologies (things you can typically do on a personal computer or using computers at home or at work); and

(2) The more recent, and fast-growing range of digital communication technologies (which allow people and organisations to communicate and share information digitally)

Let’s take a brief look at these two categories to demonstrate the kinds of products and ideas that are covered by ICT:

Traditional Computer Based Technologies

These types of ICT include:

Application                Use

Traditional Computer Based Technologies

The C part of ICT refers to the communication of data by electronic means, usually over some distance. This is often achieved via networks of sending and receiving equipment, wires and satellite links.

The technologies involved in communication tend to be complex. You certainly don’t need to understand them for your ICT course. However, there are aspects of digital communications that you need to be aware of. These relate primarily to the types of network and the ways of connecting to the Internet. Let’s look at these two briefly (further revision notes provide much more detail to support your study).

Internal networks

Usually referred to as a local area network (LAN), this involves linking a number of hardware items (input and output devices plus computer processing) together within an office or building.

The aim of a LAN is to be able to share hardware facilities such as printers or scanners, software applications and data. This type of network is invaluable in the office environment where colleagues need to have access to common data or programmes.

External networks

Often you need to communicate with someone outside your internal network, in this case you will need to be part of a Wide Area Network (WAN). The Internet is the ultimate WAN – it is a vast network of networks.

ICT in a Broader Context

An ICT course will almost certainly cover the above examples of ICT in action, perhaps focusing on the use of key applications such as spreadsheets, databases, presentation, graphics and web design software.

It will also consider the following important topics that deal with the way ICT is used and managed in an organisation:

- The nature of information (the “I” in ICT); this covers topics such as the meaning and value of information; how information is controlled; the limitations of ICT; legal considerations

- Management of information – this covers how data is captured, verified and stored for effective use; the manipulation, processing and distribution of information; keeping information secure; designing networks to share information

- Information systems strategy – this considers how ICT can be used within a business or organisation as part of achieving goals and objectives.—Tutor2.net

'Girls perform as well as boys in their maths GCSEs according to last year's results

Women’s underachievement in maths may not be due to their poor self-image in the subject, a new report suggests.

Researcher Dr. Gijsbert Stoet at the University of Leeds says that the so-called “stereotype threat” theory – which holds that women perform worse than men because they expect to do badly – “does not stand up to scrutiny”.

Earlier research had serious flaws, he says, with improper use of statistical techniques and methodology. Clearly those who carried out this research need to review their own competence in maths. Stoet believes the gender gap may simply be that men and women have different interests from an early age, and says the answer to getting more women into maths and engineering is probably a matter of motivation.

According to last year’s results, even though girls perform as well as boys in their maths GCSEs, 60% of A-levels in the subject are taken by boys, who achieve 60% of grade As.

I am an engineer, who has worked in the chemical industry for most of my working career. When I graduated in the 80s I assumed we were at the start of a new era for women in science: I studied alongside intelligent and motivated women, opportunities seemed aplenty, in-roads had been made.

But 20 years down the line, only 8.7% of British engineers are women, the lowest proportion in Europe, compared with 25% in Sweden. So what has happened?

One of the main problems is that careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (known as Stem) are not sufficiently promoted in schools, with fewer children taking up these subjects at GCSE and A-level. Year in, year out, we are told that Britain has a skills shortage, that falling numbers of graduate scientists and engineers are damaging our ability to compete internationally. In spite of girls’ belief in their abilities, the general lack of interest among schoolchildren in maths and science subjects, together with the underlying social conditioning that still remains – that science subjects “aren’t really for girls” – has led to a double-whammy effect, reducing female entrants even further.

Over the past few years, I have been involved in Stemnet, an organisation dedicated to promoting these careers by getting people who work in jobs from biologists to builders to talk to schoolchildren about what they do. It’s an attempt to debunk the myth that maths and sciences are too difficult or too boring. I was amazed to see hundreds of schoolboys and girls at a recent event at the Science Museum, presenting a range of experiments and projects they had prepared.

I agree with the new study that rather than focusing on the problems of stereotyping, we should devote more time to encouraging girls into science and technology: they clearly respond.

But encouraging schoolgirls into university and careers is not all. As is typical in most sectors, I see a number of female engineers at the entry- and mid-levels of companies, but precious few at the top. I have seen too many well-qualified women who fail to make it to top positions due to poor company culture and the lack of flexible working to allow returning mothers to the workplace. This is a huge waste of talent. The report has done well to challenge the myths behind women’s underachievement in schools, but more work still needs to be done to address the problem of women’s lack of achievement in the workplace.—Guardian.co.uk

With the new school term a couple of weeks old, we thought it appropriate to put the education system in Ghana under the microscope and explain why it is a time bomb that is waiting to explode.

It is widely acknowledged that education is a key component in nation-building and national development. Without it we are not going to produce the next generation of farmers, doctors, nurses, lawyers, scientists, technocrats etc., who ALL play key roles in the development and socio-economic life of a nation. It is this understanding of the importance that education plays in the life of a nation that Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, invested heavily in the country’s educational mechanisms.

Having the consciousness of mind to appreciate the crucial dimension education plays in national development, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah built numerous basic schools, secondary schools, colleges and universities. And to complement the above, he also established many teacher training and vocational colleges.

However, the most important aspect of Kwame Nkrumah’s educational policy was the national curriculum. The national curriculum was devised to suit the cultural, social, technological, political and economic needs of the country. It is this ideological approach to education as espoused by Osagyefo that made Ghana’s education system the finest in Africa and the envy of the world.

After Kwame Nkrumah was removed from power in 1966 subsequent leaders failed to understand the ideological importance of education leading to the situation that prevails today- an education system in crisis, [with] dilapidated infrastructure, [hitherto] with poorly remunerated and de-motivated teachers, a curricula that does not address the fundamental cultural, social, technological, political and economic needs of the country and the creation of a two-tier system of education whereby the order of the day is one’s ability to pay inordinate school fess in Euros, pounds or US dollars.

It is this witting or unwitting form of educational apartheid that is extremely alarming that is creating a time bomb that is waiting to explode in our very eyes. In days of yore a businessman’s child and a factory worker’s child both received the same quality and standard of education.  Also both had the equal opportunity to reach the zenith of educational achievement.

Today as a direct consequence of the lack of investment in [the] public schools and with the advent of the “international school(s)”, a two-tier system of education has been established whereby the businessman’s child is in the position to receive a first-class education while the factory worker’s child is destined to receive an inferior quality and standard of education.

It is totally unacceptable that in Ghana today education has somewhat become a privilege rather than a right, whereby a minority of children receive first-class education purely based on the financial endowment of their parents, while the vast majority of children receive a substandard education from the state school system that has been starved of the necessary resources needed to boost the educational attainment of pupils – and it is no surprise that in 2011 more than 50% of pupils especially in these state schools failed their BECE.

This two-tier system of education cannot and should not be allowed to prevail as it has serious consequences for the country. This could manifest itself in that those children from more affluent backgrounds who can afford to go to the better equipped international schools, some of which charge upwards of US$3,000 a term ending up with an array of educational opportunities whilst those children [who make up the vast majority] whose parents are not financially endowed, face poor educational opportunities hence dire career prospects and possible social exclusion that in itself has its own consequences.

This is a nightmare scenario that is bad for national cohesion and national development and is something the powers that be need to address urgently.

The next bone of contention and crucially is the flawed national curriculum. The desired purpose of a national curriculum is to promote and subsequently meet the specific cultural, social, technological, political and economic needs and wants of a nation.

This ideology is precisely what Dr. Kwame Nkrumah understood to a tee and this is why during Osagyefo’s tenure as president, Ghana produced the finest teachers, doctors, nurses, scientists, lawyers’ etc., in Africa and were able to even surpass their western counterparts.

In Ghana today the national curriculum hardly promotes the above ideology and what we witness is a hybrid of German, British, French, Ghanaian, American and Arabic curricula which creates enormous confusion in the child and at the same time infuses an inferiority complex.

It also does nothing to inculcate into the child the spirit of nationalism and pride in being Ghanaian and African.

Unless as a nation we take active steps to alter or preferably Afrikanize the national curriculum to suit our specific cultural, social, technological, political and economic needs and wants, and more importantly neutralize the educational apartheid that currently exists and make education more inclusive and a right rather than a privilege, Ghana WILL NEVER make the socio-economic strides it seeks to attain and could witness great social tribulations.

In and out of the classroom, we’re often confronted with problems and effective problem solvers often employ a few key remedies. Here are the steps to becoming a more effective problem solver.

Here’s How:

Understand ‘why’ the problem exists. What is the actual root cause for the problem? If you know something about why the problem exists, you’ll have a better time of resolving the problem. Let’s take the example of a child who doesn’t want to come to school. Before you can help identify a solution, it is important to find out why the child doesn’t want to come to school. Perhaps there is a bully involved. So one of the first steps to becoming an effective problem solver is delving into the root cause of the problem.

Be able to clearly identify the problem and the obstacles that the problem presents. All too often, individuals refer to a series of problems instead of tackling the actual problem at hand. Clearly state the problem and what obstacles the problem presents to you. Again, the child who doesn’t want to come to school has the problem of it having a negative impact on his/her academic success.

Once you have clearly stated the problem, you need to understand what you have control over and what you don’t. Your efforts to resolve the problem must be within the areas where you have control. You may not have control over getting a child to come to school, but you do have control over dealing with the bully that is causing the problem of the child not wanting to attend school. Your efforts to solve the problem must focus on the areas for which you have control over.

Do you have all the information you need? Solving problems is often like becoming involved in investigations. Have you thoroughly researched why the problem exists? Do you have all the information you need? If not, be persistent and seek out all information before tackling the problem.

Don’t jump to conclusions. Once you have all of your information, analyze it carefully and look at it from various viewpoints. Be as objective as possible and don’t be quick to judge. Remain judgement free as much as possible. This is a time for you to use your critical thinking skills.

Now determine your options for solutions. How many options do you have? Are you sure? Which options seem reasonable? Have you weighed the pros and cons of your options? Are there any limitations to your options? Are some options better than others and why? Are there advantages and disadvantages you need to take into consideration?

You should now be ready to act. A well thought out strategy/solution is now in place. However, what is your plan to monitor its outcome? How will you know that your solution is working? Once your solution is in place, it is important to monitor and evaluate the outcome regularly.

In Summary
You can use this approach to many classroom problems. A child that won’t comply, a parent that is unhappy with their child’s IEP, an educational assistant with whom you are having some conflict with. The strategies used in this problem solving plan are merely good life long skills to have.

Tips:

Clearly state the problem.

Know what the obstacles are related to the problem.

Determine what you have control over and what you don’t.

Make sure you have ALL the information you need.

Identify all of your options and implement the best option for a solution.—Specialed.about.com

Success in social skills leads to academic and functional success. Social skills are critical for long term success.

Collaboration is an important social skill

Sometimes referred to as Emotional Intelligence, it is a combination of the ability to understand and manage one’s own emotional state (Intra-personal Intelligence in Howard Gardner’s Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences) and the ability to understand and respond to other people. Although social skills include understanding and using social conventions, it also includes the ability to understand the “Hidden Curriculum,” the ways in which peers communicate and interact, reciprocity and the ability to build interpersonal relationships.

Social conventions

Difficulty with social skills, and deficits in social skills, are found to different degrees across abilities as well as disabilities. Both children with disabilities and children from low socio-economic groups may not have extensive understanding of social conventions, and may need instruction in conventions such as:

Appropriate greetings depending on relationships: i.e. peer to peer or child to adult.

Appropriate and polite ways to make requests (please) and express gratitude (thanks.)

Addressing adults.

Shaking hands.

Taking turns.

Sharing

Giving positive feedback (praise) to peers, no put downs.

Cooperation

Intra-personal social skills, or managing one’s self

Difficulty managing one’s own emotional state, especially tantrumming or aggression in response to frustration, is common in children with disabilities. Children for whom this is the primary disabling condition are often diagnosed with an emotional or behavioral disorders which may be designated as “emotional support,” “severely emotionally challenged,” or “conduct disorders.” Many children with disabilities may be less mature than their typical peers, and may reflect less understanding of how to manage their own emotions.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders commonly have difficulty with emotional self-regulation and understanding emotion. Difficulty with social situations is a component of the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders, which reflects deficits in understanding and expression their own emotional states.

Emotional Literacy needs to be explicitly taught to students, especially students with emotional and behavioral disorders and children with autism spectrum disorders. This requires teaching the ability to identify emotions by looking at faces, the ability to identify cause and effect for emotions and scenarios, and learning appropriate ways to deal with personal emotional states.

Behavioral contracts are often useful tools for students with poor self-regulation skills, both to teach and self-monitor difficulty with self-regulation as well as teach and reward appropriate or “replacement” behaviour.

Inter-Personal Social Skills

The ability to understand others’ emotional states, wants and needs is critical not only for success in school, but also success in life. It is also a “quality of life” issue, which will help students with and without disabilities, to build relationships, find happiness and succeed economically. It can also contribute to a positive classroom environment.

Appropriate interactions: Children with disabilities, especially Autism Spectrum Disorders, often need to be taught appropriate social interactions, such as making requests, initiating interactions, sharing, exercising reciprocity (give and take) and turn taking. Teaching appropriate interactions can involve modeling, role playing, scripting and social narratives. Successfully learning and generalizing of appropriate interactions requires lots of practice.

Understanding and building relationships: Children with disabilities often do not have the skills to initiate and sustain mutual relationships. In the cases with students with Autism Spectrum Disorders, they need to be explicitly taught the components of friendship or relationships.

Building and Generalizing Skills

Students with disabilities have problems both with acquiring and applying social skills. They need lots of practice. Successful ways to learn and generalize social skills include:

Modeling: the teacher and an aide or another teacher enact the social interactions you want students to learn.

Video Self Modeling: You videotape the student performing the social skill with lots of prompting, and edit out the prompting to create a more seamless digital recording. This video, paired with rehearsal, will support the student’s effort to generalize the social skill.

Role playing: Practice is essential for maintaining social skills. Role playing is a great way to give students an opportunity not only to practice the skills they are learning, but also teach students to evaluate each other’s or their own performance of skills.—Specialed.about.com

AUTHOR: SUSAN FITZELL

We learn through all of the intelligence styles, but we have certain learning preferences that are stronger than others. Choose strategies that support your student’s strongest learning preference when helping them with homework or studying.

For verbal/linguistic learners

These learners learn by saying, hearing and seeing words. They can easily memorize names, dates, places and trivia. To help verbal/linguistic learners:

-Use descriptive language

-Have them study by reading, writing, telling stories, playing word games and working with jokes and riddles

-They are good at creating imaginary worlds

-Create crossword puzzles for practice at HYPERLINK “http://www.puzzlemaker.com/”www.puzzlemaker.com 

For logical/mathematical learners

These learners are adept at categorizing, classifying and working with abstract patterns and relationships. They work well with reasoning, numbers, abstractions, logic, problem-solving and moving from the concrete to the abstract.

-Compare and contrast ideas

-Create a timeline

-Classify concepts/objects/materials

-Read or design maps

-Use a Venn diagram to explain…

-Teach using technology

For bodily/kinesthetic learners

The brain’s motor cortex, which controls bodily motion, is the key to the intelligence of bodily/kinesthetic learners. These learners process knowledge through bodily sensations and need to touch, move and interact with space.

-Create hands-on projects

-Conduct hands-on experiments

-Create human sculptures to illustrate situations

-Reenact great moments from history

-Make task or puzzle cards for…

For visual/spatial learners

Visual/spatial learners rely on their sense of sight and the ability to visualize an object. They create -Make a visual organizer or memory model of the material being learned

-Graph the results of a survey or a course of study

-Create posters or flyers

-Create collages

-Draw maps

-Color-code the process of…

For musical/rhythmic learners

Musical/rhythmic learners recognize tonal patterns. For optimal learning, suggest that they hum or sing the information they want to grasp or have them move their bodies while they study.

-Create “raps” (key dates, math and poems) or write new lyrics to a song so that it explains…

-Identify social issues through lyrics

-Analyze different historical periods through their music

-Make up sounds for different math operations or processes

-Use music to enhance the learning of…

For interpersonal learners

Person-to-person relationships and communication are necessary for interpersonal learners. They study and work best with others.

-Analyze the relationships in a story

-Review material/concepts/books orally

-Discuss/debate controversial issues

-Find relationships between objects, cultures and situations

-Role-play a conversation with an important historical figure

-Solve complex word problems in a group

-Peer Tutor the subject being learned

For Intrapersonal Learners

Almost the exact opposite of interpersonal learners, intrapersonal learners thrive when working alone. Self-paced instruction and individualized projects work best with these students. Suggest that intrapersonal learners keep a daily journal, as their thoughts are directed inward. They have a great degree of self-understanding and they rely deeply on their instincts.

-Keep a journal to demonstrate learning

-Analyze historical personalities

-Imagine being a character in history, a scientist discovering a cure or a mathematician working on a theory and describe or write about what you imagine to demonstrate learning

For naturalist learners

Naturalist learners observe and understand the organized patterns in the natural world. Provide them with visualization activities and hands-on activities that are based on nature. Bring the outdoors into their learning environment whenever possible. Study in ways that call on the naturalist learner’s abilities to measure, map and chart observations of plants and animals.

-Sort and classify content in relation to the natural world

-Interact with nature through field trips

-Encourage learning in natural surroundings

-Categorize facts about…–Edarticles.com