A Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Education Committee, Dr. Clement Apaak has called on the government to come out with a specific date as to when basic schools will receive learning materials for the new curriculum which started in September 2019.
According to him, the “Nana Akufo-Addo led NPP Government owes Ghanaians an explanation as to why two months on, there are no books based on the new curriculum.”
Dr. Apaak in a statement backed his demand with a disclaimer issued by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) with regards to the release of the educational materials.
NaCCA had refuted claims that “publishers are selling textbooks and other supplementary learning materials to schools and the general public purported to have been approved by it for the new Standards-Based Curriculum (KG-B6)”.
The legislator further urged Ghanaians to demand accountability from government, saying that “Ghanaians must not accept such gross incompetence and insensitivity, especially when it has to do with the future of our nation, educating the future leaders”.
Below is the full statement:
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) says some Publishers are selling textbooks and other supplementary learning materials to schools and the general public purported to have been approved by it for the new Standards-Based Curriculum (KG-B6).
NaCCA in a letter signed by its Director and dated 31st October 2019, said: “We wish to inform all heads of schools, parents and the general public that NaCCA has not yet approved any textbook for the new curriculum”.
From the foregoing, it is clear that our basic schools: teachers and students have no teaching and learning materials based on the new Curriculum, though the basic schools reopened on September 10th, 2019. This raises a number of questions that require answers:
1. How does NaCCA expect the teachers to teach in the absence of textbooks since September 10th, 2019? Is NaCCA not the reason for substandard textbooks parading the basic schools now?
2. The new curriculum which came into effect on September 10th, 2019 is designated ”standard based”. Well and good. However, without textbooks, whose standard are the teachers teaching to, their own individual standards as they deem fit?
3. When will teaching and learning materials based on the new curriculum be approved and made available to the basic schools? Are they even being produced?
4. Where else in the world is a new curriculum launched without textbooks to ensure that the objectives of the curriculum are achieved? How do we expect teachers to implement the new curriculum without textbooks and supplementary readers?
The Nana Akufo-Addo led NPP Government owes Ghanaians an explanation as to why two months on, there are no books based on the new curriculum. Government must give a definite date on when teaching and learning material based on the new curriculum will be made available to the basic schools.
Ghanaians must not accept such gross incompetence and insensitivity, especially when it has to do with the future of our nation, educating the future leaders. We must demand accountability from those we have entrusted with power.
