Network for promoting critical thinking holds conference

The Educators’ Network (TEN) has held its fifth Literacy Conference aimed at transforming young people into independent decision-makers and critical thinkers capable of making thoughtful assessments of given options.

The conference, held in Accra on the theme: “Nurturing Thinkers” brought together teachers and instructors to learn new ways to create in schools a climate for thinking, provide opportunities for thinking, and harness intellectual tools that would nurture thinking practices in the classrooms.

Speaking at the opening session, Ms Martina Mamle Odonkor, the Education and Gender Advisor, Social Impact Ghana, said the poor performance of pupils in English, as shown in the 2013 Ghana National Education Assessment (NEA) report, was alarming.

The 2013 NEA report covered the10 regions of Ghana, sampling 550 public and private schools, and testing 36,905 pupils.

The report said in English, only 28 per cent of Primary Three pupils and 39 per cent of Primary Six pupils reached proficiency, whiles in Mathematics, only 22 per cent of P3 pupils and 11 per cent of P6 pupils reached proficiency.

Ms Odonkor said although the performance was bad in Mathematics; that of English was alarming because literacy and proficiency in the language of instruction were a twinset of skills that were key to all subjects.

“And beyond opening up, the other subjects, reading gives us the power to discover the world,” she said. “It develops the curiosity and interest of children and sharpens the thirst for knowledge.”

Ms Odonkor said while there were opportunities to improve literacy on a national scale, this should not be about finding best teaching methodologies alone but also to improve the management of state services.

She urged education stakeholders to use their networks and platforms as opportunities to advocate for efficiency, accountability and improved management of the education system.

Ms Letitia Naami Oddoye of the Educators’ Network said through the series of workshops, TEN hoped to initiate and sustain a discourse on ways of embedding current practices with critical thinking.

She said increasingly competitive standards were requiring young people to be independent decision-makers and critical thinkers who were capable of making thoughtful assessments of given options.

This year, TEN provided a full complement of over 28 workshops in seven different areas: Literacy, Math, Science, French, Critical Thinking, Classroom Management, and Administration & Leadership targeted at all grade levels and most of the core subject areas.

Through these series of workshops, she said, TEN was hopeful, to initiate and sustain a discourse on ways of embedding current practices with critical thinking as a methodology.

TEN was founded by a group of Ghanaian international educators who are passionate about teaching and have had the benefit of exposure to diverse educational curricula and standards.