The Anomabo Catholic Junior High School (JHS) emerged winners of this year’s Joseph Benjamin Bunyan Memorial Maths and Science Quiz Competition for Junior High Schools (JHS) in the Mfantseman Municipality.
They were followed by Ndasimaim JHS with Yamoransa Catholic JHS taking the third position.
Some of the competing schools during the Semifinals were, Akraman Catholic JHS, Egyaa JHS and Amisakrom JHS.
The winning school took home GHC500.00, a gold plague, some exercise books and two boxes of mathematical set, the second, also had GHC400.00, a box of mathematical set and some exercise books, while the third school had GHC300.00 and some exercises books.
The programme was organised by the Boys and Girls Club of Ghana and funded by the Bunyan Family.
The occasion coincided with the launch of the Joseph Benjamin Bunyan Memorial Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) lecture for Basic School Teachers in the Mfantseman Municipality.
Giving the key note address, a lecturer at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Dr. Eric Agyako, said TVET was an area of study with a wide scope, yet many people look down on it due to lack of knowledge about it.
Regrettably, he said, the negative perception of TVET was often times perpetuated by some misplaced TVET professionals who struggled to excel in their fields of specialization.
He indicated that the vocations were mostly studied by people with supposedly low intellectual capabilities in Ghana and described that notion as ‘sad’.
“Any vocation or academic program that applies the three domains of learning that is cognitive, affective and psychomotor is called TVET and this makes it broad that people with low intellectual abilities can never excel at it,” He explained.
Dr Agyako added that TVET demanded application of intellectual, perceptual, critical thinking, analytical, creative and organizational skills and the development of these skills largely depended on mathematics and science.
He appealed to the Government to through the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), embark on massive public education on the scope and prospects of TVET.
Speaking on the theme, “Demystifying the Study of Maths and Science; the role of the Basic School Teacher “, Mr. Joseph Ato Sarpong, the Headmaster of Ghana National College, urged teachers to create an environment where pupils would talk freely about their experiences.
“Pupils are usually faced with the hurdle of being unable to relate concepts in mathematics and science to real life situations or problems and if this is done they will embrace issues with understanding,” he added.
To promote teaching and learning, he said, communities could use public address systems to access programmes broadcast by national learning radio or television channels to enhance learning.
