The Director General of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), Professor Edward Appiah, has said that the controversial history textbook on the market was not part of the books the Ministry of Education procured for the Ghana Education Service (GES) for distribution to basic schools in the country.
According to him, NaCCA went through the original book and denied ever approving or seeing the portions of the book that denigrated Christianity.
The controversial history textbook for primary four pupils released by Excellence Publications titled “History of Ghana” received condemnation after it was discovered.
Speaking on the Point of View on Citi TV hosted by Bernard Avle, Professor Edwin Appiah explained, “This textbook that has created controversy, I’m not disputing that NaCCA has not approved some of the publisher’s books before. He has a series of textbooks, and we wanted to see those versions, so then we can make our firm decisions.”
“We did our assessment report on this book, so I’m surprised, and I need to see the version on the market, then I can make a firm decision. The controversial textbook was not part of the textbooks the Ministry of Education procured for GES.”
The Director General of NaCCA lamented over the many textbooks smuggled onto the market and sold to unsuspecting parents and school children.
He added that some of these smuggled textbooks have deceptive inscriptions indicating that the books are approved when indeed they are not.
“Most of the textbooks out there are not approved, the publishers lie about the textbooks. Some of the books say based on NaCCA or GES syllabus but are not NaCCA approved. These are some of the marketing gimmicks publishers use and people say oh NaCCA approved.”
He reiterated, “Our mandate does not go beyond the market where somebody is selling his books. We cannot say you don’t need to sell because they are not approved, we can’t do that because of this free market enterprise, we are operating. And so we need to be careful.”
NaCCA on May 25, demanded the immediate recall of the History book.
The Ghana National Association of Authors and Publishers on May 29, issued an unqualified apology to NaCCA, the Ministry of Education, and the public.
