Distribution of New Curriculum Textbooks Long Overdue  - Mr. Saeed Adam Banda to Ministry of Education

The future of the nation's educational setup looks uninteresting as the introduction of the new curriculum for the basic schools in Ghana are without government sponsored textbooks, the implementing authority.

Following the implementation of the Standards-Based Curriculum in 2019 for Basic schools in Ghana, the State has been unable to deliver on her promise to provide public schools textbooks for the realization of the programme. 

Even though the Ministry of Education in March 2022 gave the assurance of getting the textbooks published and distributed, it has been more than months for our regions, districts and schools to receive such books, though it is reported that a few regions have received some textbooks for some few subjects.

The delay in the distribution of textbooks to schools has sparked many concerns about the government's inability to facilitate and supply supportive books to boost the new curriculum for effective teaching and learning in our schools. 

Mr. Saeed Adam Banda, an educationist and a publisher for SUCCESSLINK PUBLICATIONS Limited is not the first person or publisher to speak on this worrying issue; several stakeholders including the pre-tertiary teacher unions, teachers, education bloggers and recently, the African Education Watch have all added their voices that the distribution of the textbooks to basic schools is long overdue.

He said, it is unfortunate that three years after introducing the new curriculum for basic schools, teachers stride into their core responsibilities and had evoked a lack of required learning and teaching materials for them.

Mr. Saeed Adam Banda was speaking in an exclusive interview with Appiah Kubi, on the Tain FM Anopa Nkommo show, where he reiterated that the initiative could have been better if it was properly planned. 

Adding that, the core values of the new standards-based curriculum; critical thinking and problem solving, team building, innovation and creativity, digital literacy and global and patriotic citizenship were in accordance, but lack proper planning. 

How are teachers able to teach amidst no textbooks?

Many teachers, largely depend on the internet to gather information when preparing their lesson notes. 

That set aside, others also rely on the contents made available in soft copies of lesson notes which have been prepared by their college teachers. 

Significantly, a few have also purchased some textbooks from bookshops which have been published by certified publishers in the country.