Narration: A Regional workshop for Elective Physics Teachers in the Upper East Region is underway in Bolgatanga. The workshop, which is being organized under the joint collaboration of the UK Institute of Physics and the Ministry of Education, is aimed at improving the knowledge base of teachers involved in the teaching of physics in both Junior and Senior High Schools in the region. The workshop also seeks to create a platform for participants to get an insight into a more innovative and pragmatic ways of teaching physics, and above all, introduce to them a new approach to the teaching of the subject in schools. It is being attended by 30 selected physics teachers drawn from the various schools in the region, with resource persons and chiefs among others. Here is a report by Isaac Asare.
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The National Coordinator, UK Institute of Physics, Mr. Charles Kwame Appiah, who opened the 4-day workshop, told Radio Ghana that the workshop which is the 10th in the series to be held in the country was to promote physics education in Ghana. Participants he indicated would be taken through practical knowledge in semi conductors, transistors, operational amplifiers, logic gates and the use of animation in ICT among other related activities in physics. Participants, he further stressed, will in the future be given practical knowledge on how to repair electronic equipments used in the teaching of physics in schools. The move, he said, is to acquaint physics teachers with modern and technological ways of teaching physics as a subject, adding that physics is the basis for development. Mr Appiah briefed the participants about efforts being made by the UK institute of Physics to enhance the study of science and technology in its quest to meet the growing developmental needs of the nation. He said the strong historical underpinning of UK’s relationship had strengthened its academic and bilateral ties with the government of Ghana through the Ministry of Education and mentioned the establishment of Physics centers in Ada and Cape Coast as some of the achievements made so far. Mr Appiah also announced plans by the institute to establish a new centre in Wa, hopefully by the end of this year. This he noted symbolizes a unifying bond between the two countries. He said developed countries including UK possessed skills of manpower and technology which it was happy to share with other developing countries like Ghana, hence, the need for us to invest in science by putting in more resources towards its development. He said similar workshops held in Ada and other places was yielding fruitful results and urged participants to take the workshop seriously to help achieve the desired objective. He moreover called on participants not to concentrate solely on the theory aspect of physics but rather come out with interventions and methods to help address problems facing the teaching and learning of physics in schools. In a speech read on her behalf, the Acting Regional Director of Education, Mrs. Agnes Atagabe expressed worry about students’ lackadaisical attitude towards physics in the region. She said less than 20 percent of students that wrote the 2008/2009 WAEC exams passed whilst majority of them performed poorly in the subject. She attributed the challenge to lack of well resourced laboratories and inadequate qualified physics teachers to man the various schools in the region. She said in order for teachers to succeed in the teaching of physics, there is the need for them to adapt to pragmatic instructional strategies that will convince students to develop interest in the subject. Mrs Atagabe called for more of such workshops and hoped that by the end of the workshop, participants would have come out with suggestions that would help enhance the teaching and learning of the subject, to stem "fears" about its study.
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