In the Central Region, the heads of several basic schools and the municipal and district directors of education have fervently pleaded with the Ghana Education Service (GES) to make sure that basic schools receive the complete complement of textbooks.
They said that the existing shortage of textbooks was hindering effective teaching and learning under the new standard-based curriculum, notably for English language, core mathematics, and science.
Congressional Committee
These worries surfaced last Thursday and Friday during a verification visit by a 20-member delegation from the Government Assurance Committee of Parliament to a few chosen elementary schools in the Central Region.
The Minister answers
Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, the minister of education, quickly responded, saying there were enough textbooks and copies for everyone. It stated that the ministry was collaborating with the regional heads of stores to address the shortage in all regions.
"We have acquired enough texts to supply instruction across the board in all schools. The regional stores now have the responsibility of ensuring that any school that has a shortage gets the extra textbooks it requires.
Dr. Adutwum claimed that as a temporary fix, he had hired GhanaPost and another courier service to make sure that the books were delivered as soon as possible to areas where they were in limited supply.
"The engagement with GhanaPost is to ensure that the books are distributed immediately while a more permanent way is found to distribute textbooks to the schools from the regional stores," the minister emphasised.
highlighting the fact that the books should not have been left at the regional depots when the schools required them.
Stakeholders
Although some textbooks, teachers' guides, and other resources had been sent, the stakeholders remarked that they still hadn't gotten the entire set.
The directors and head teachers also mentioned how the challenging circumstances had forced schools to forbid students from bringing textbooks home for assignments, a practise they said reduced student production.
They also voiced great concern over the fact that certain junior high schools (JHS) still lacked textbooks at a time when final-year students needed to start preparing for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), which will be held in August of this year.
tour of verification
Patricia Appiagyei, the committee chairwoman, conducted the tour to check on whether all of the basic schools had gotten the entire set of textbooks that Dr. Adutwum had promised to provide.
In 2021, the minister testified in front of lawmakers to reassure them that the GES had provided every basic school in the Central Region with a complete set of textbooks.
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