GES releases virtual learning timetable

The Ministry of Education through the Ghana Education Service (GES) has released the timetable for the virtual learning for senior high schools (SHS) on a GTV started today at 8.30am.

The channel, Ghana Learning TV will broadcast SHS courses focusing on core subjects - English, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies.

The programme, which is a collaboration between the Ministry of Education through the GES and the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) is to keep students in learning mode while they remained at home because of the COVID-19.

Under the agreement between the two institutions, the GES is to provide learning materials for the GBC to broadcast on the free-to-air 24-hour channel.

The timetable, which is a 45 minutes per subject with 15 minutes break intervals begins at 8.30am with SHS Three Mathematics, followed by SHS Two and SHS One in that order in Mathematics, then English, Science and Social studies until 8.30pm when the lessons would be over.

Commenting on the broadcast, the Minister of Education Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh appealed to parents to help their children to take advantage of the virtual learning being rolled out.

He said the intervention was to ensure that learning continues beyond the classroom and that the role of parents was crucial to ensure that it succeeded.

Speaking in an interview, Dr Premeph explained that the intervention was to ensure that COVID-19 did not pose a barrier to learning and hamper learning outcomes.

He said already, the online platform under the icampus took off in earnest since last Momday for SHS students and as at last Tuesday in the morning, over 2,000 students had logged onto the site.

Dr Prempeh explained that aside the TV and online, the ministry through the GES was finalising negotiations with the GBC for a dedicated radio channel to broadcast the educational materials.

He said parents with smart phones should spare sometime to enable their children, especially the SHS students to use their phones to engage in learning.

Dr Prempeh said all the effort the government was putting in place would not materialise if parents stood unsupportive and allowed their children to see their time home as "business as usual".

He however, assured parents of students in the junior high schools, primary schools and KG’s that soon, their content would be added.