Deputy Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament, Dr. Clement Apaak has revealed that basic schools across the country have not received textbooks based on the new syllabus developed by the Ghana Education Service.
According to background checks done by members of the committee, no single school had received copies of the required textbooks needed to facilitate teaching and learning based on the syllabus developed four years ago.
Dr. Apaak made this revelation during an interaction with the media over the weekend.
“No public basic school in the Republic of Ghana has the full complement of textbooks produced on the back of the new school curriculum that was unveiled in 2019,” he said.
Dr. Apaak insisted that contrary to the opinion that some schools in the Central Region have received the full complement of the textbooks, he insisted that checks done across board indicated otherwise.
“I doubt and I say so because the Ranking Member of the committee just told me that the list that was given was generated by the ministry. That in itself defeats the motive for the exercise.”
He questioned government’s failure to distribute books to less endowed areas as he noted that these books are seemingly available to only what he described as ‘endowed places’.
“I am also quite curious that rather than spreading it out and perhaps rather than let the committee go to the less endowed part of this country, in this case, the five regions in the Northern part of this country, they have chosen places that we know are better endowed.”
The Builsa South Legislator blamed the inability for producers to deliver the books to the schools on government due to non-payment.
He added that the cap on GETFund makes it difficult to generate the needed revenue to undertake such projects, consequently resulting in a halt in the production and distribution of the books until the printers are paid for the services rendered.
He further bewailed government’s failure to provide textbooks based on the new curriculum in many schools in the country.
“It is not right, it is not acceptable that four years down the line after the introduction of a new curriculum, teachers and headmasters and schools are still crying over lack of adequate textbooks,” he said.
Sometime in July last year, the Deputy Education Minister, Hon. Ntim Fordjour indicated that the government had engaged all stakeholders and there were progresses made to get the books to all schools in a matter of weeks.
However, recent updates have shown that the plan had failed to attain completion as most schools lack the required textbooks for effective teaching and learning in accordance to the new curriculum that had been released four years ago.
