After months of debate and consultation with stakeholders, cabinet has finally adopted the long-awaited Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) policy, which aims to provide specialised education programs for students with extraordinary academic aptitude, creativity, or talent.
The policy will allow specialized programs to be delivered to students in addition to the conventional curriculum, providing challenging and enriching experiences that promote intellectual, social, and emotional growth.
The Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum introduced the strategy and emphasized its advantages for Ghana’s exceptional children. He emphasized, “This policy will provide our gifted and talented children a platform to reach their full potential.”
Students who demonstrate exceptional achievement or potential in particular subjects, such as mathematics or science, or who show creative talent in art, music, or writing, are typically the target audience for GATE programs.
Advanced cognitive abilities, such as high IQ or exceptional problem-solving skills, are also catered to.
The GATE education program, according to Dr. Adutwum, will close the long-standing gap in Ghana’s educational system, which has traditionally disregarded youngsters with high ability.
The program aims to build outstanding potential in brilliant students, he continued, by offering new course opportunities in the sciences and arts from junior high school to senior high school, along with professional pathways.
He said the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Service and the Ghana Education Service (GES) will work together to implement GATE by utilizing the experience of their respective special education divisions.
This project, in his words, seeks to close the socioeconomic divide, especially in underprivileged areas, such as rural and Zongo populations.
“The purpose of GATE programs is to improve underprivileged areas, particularly those that are rural and Zongo. Identification, evaluation, programming, staffing, professional development, and policy will all be used to close opportunity gaps for talented rural students,” he said.
The Minister of Education highlighted that staffing, professional development, specialized programming, and the identification and evaluation of gifted pupils in rural areas are some of the program’s primary components.
The remaining initiatives include changing policies to close the opportunity gap, identifying JHS and SHS GATE schools, providing enrichment opportunities for eligible GATE students in their current school, and creating GATE pathways curriculum, instruction, and assessment through the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA).
“Newly founded JHS and SHS schools will be named GATE schools at first, accepting all GATE students. The same enriching experiences that their peers in GATE-designated schools get will thereafter be afforded to qualified GATE students who enroll in GATE programs at their existing schools,” he added.
He revealed that the responsibility of initiating the creation of the GATE program—which includes creating curriculum, instruction, and assessment frameworks—will go to NaCCA.
In addition, it will offer chances to enhance the engagement of underrepresented groups and set rules for identifying and choosing children for the program.
It will also develop guidelines for training and selecting teachers to oversee GATE programs.
He continued by saying that this will guarantee a thorough and inclusive approach to the GATE program’s execution and that it will offer a stimulating and encouraging environment for gifted and talented students to flourish.
He claimed that by helping Ghana’s exceptional and talented youngsters reach their full potential, this specialized program may spur socioeconomic development and progress.
“Using inventions and innovations to maximize socioeconomic growth has greatly benefited the countries that implemented GATE education in the 1960s and 1970s. Ghana should do likewise by utilizing the potential of its young people who are gifted and brilliant. The country-wide socio-economic effects of the GATE program are anticipated by the Ministry,” he proposed.
BY: APPIANIMAA MERCY
