The six NaCCA core competencies, and how to show them in a note

Every NaCCA lesson is meant to build more than a topic. Underneath the content sit six core competencies, the durable skills the curriculum wants learners to carry out of school. A note names the ones a lesson touches, but naming them is the easy part. The harder, and more useful, part is designing an activity that actually shows one. Here are the six, each with a concrete way to evidence it.

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

Show this with a task that has more than one route to an answer, or a problem set in a real situation. A question that asks learners to explain why, or to choose between options and defend the choice, evidences it far better than one with a single fill-in answer.

Creativity and Innovation

Give room to make something: a design, a different method, a solution the learner arrives at their own way. An activity that says produce or invent, rather than copy or repeat, is where this shows up.

Communication and Collaboration

Build in a think-pair-share, a group task with a shared output, or a moment where a learner presents to the class. If the lesson is teacher talk from start to finish, this one is only on paper.

Cultural Identity and Global Citizenship

Anchor an example in the learner's own context, a Ghanaian market, a local practice, a community issue, then widen it. Connecting the topic to the world the learner lives in is the evidence here.

Personal Development and Leadership

Hand over some responsibility: a group role, a self-check, a task the learner plans and follows through on. Anything that asks a learner to manage themselves or lead a small part of the work counts.

Digital Literacy

Where the resources allow, fold in a search, a device, or a digital tool used for the task, not as decoration. Even planning how you would use one shows an awareness of it.

In a weekly lesson note these appear by their short codes, CP, CI, CC, CG, PL and DL, usually alongside the values a lesson builds. The rule of thumb: if a vetter reads the activity and cannot see the competency you named, it is not yet evidenced. teache pulls the competencies from the indicator you are teaching and keeps them tied to the activities, so what you claim and what you print match. Draft a week and see.