Give NaCCA power to prosecute publishers of unapproved textbooks – Govt told

Managing Director of Adwensa Publications, Kwaku Oppong Amponsah, is urging the government to initiate steps to empower the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) to prosecute publishers of unauthorized books.

Some educational stakeholders recently lambasted NaCCA for failing to perform its supervisory role in the approval of textbooks after some books from Badu Nkansah Publications containing “bigoted” statements went viral on social media.

In an interview on the Read A Book A Week Show, he said granting NaCCA prosecutional powers will help the regulatory body to effectively deal with publishers who do not get its approval before making their books available on the market.

“One of the ways is trying to give NaCCA the authority to prosecute. If NaCCA has that authority…that will help. If it could go out to the market, go out to the bookshops, go out to schools and if it finds books that are in schools, that are in bookshops, that have been printed, that do not really have NaCCA’s approval, then NaCCA can take it up.

“When that is being done, there is prosecution, there are steps being taken to ensure that those who do that are being sanctioned and all that, it will to a large extent rid the market and rid the industry of people who come up with books that have not been approved,” he stated.

Mr. Amponsah further expressed concerns over delays in the approval of books by NaCCA.

He said such development does not augur well for publishers as it hinders them from meeting the needs of schools demanding their textbooks.

He thus appealed to NaCCA to expedite processes in the approval of textbooks “so that we can also meet the demand and expectations of the schools in time.”

“I’ll only encourage Ministry of Education (MoE), Ghana Education Service (GES), encourage NaCC to do more to strengthen the process [of getting books approved] and to ensure that it is done well,” he appealed.

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) is an independent statutory body committed to improving learning experiences and outcomes of all Ghanaian children and young people through world–class school curriculum, assessment and reporting.