Teachers advised against testing KG pupils with printed material

Cape Coast, Oct 31, GNA - Mrs Evelyn Quartey-Papafio of the National Nursery Training Centre, has cautioned kindergarten (KG) teachers against testing their pupils with printed materials. Such test, she said could scare the children and make them to develop "hatred" against tests.

She said since KG pupils were more at home with slate and chalk that should be the medium to test them to see if they had grasped their lessons.

Mrs Quartey-Papafio gave the caution at a five-day workshop for Pre-school Co-ordinators in the Central Region and some teachers at Cape Coast.

The workshop, which sponsored by UNICEF, was to train them on the use of the new pre-school syllabus.

Mrs Justina Esinam Tordjagbo, Central Regional Director of Education, stated that kindergartens would fully be integrated into the basic school programme in 2007, adding that the workshop was part of the training to prepare them for the start of the programme. She advised teachers to take advantage of the capitation grant to plan with their heads to acquire materials they would need to enhance teaching and learning.

The Regional Director stated that heads and teachers would no longer have any excuse for not preparing teaching and learning materials for their lessons.

Mrs Tordjagbo pointed out that the capitation grant did not cover the feeding of KG pupils and appealed to parents to contribute. Miss Salome Odobill, Regional Preschool Co-ordinator, expressed concern about the staffing of KGs with ":old and weak" teachers who were about to retire and said pre-schools needed energetic teachers to prepare children in their formative years.