Why there will be no textbooks for new curriculum until 2024

I look on the future of our educational setup with a great worry. Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Minister of Education has largely been in the business of simply admitting the inability of government to supply textbooks to basic school pupils, despite the introduction of a new curriculum three (3) years ago.

I strongly believe Dr. Adutwum acknowledges, the relevance of textbooks in the process of implementing a new curriculum effectively in our basic schools, however I equally strongly agree with John F. Kennedy when he said; as we express what deeply we acknowledge, we must never forget that, the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them.

There have been several dates announced by either the Education minister, Dr. Yaw Adutwum or the spokesperson of the Ministry of Education which sincerely time has proven that the people of Ghana should have taken those announcements with a pinch of salt.

After three years of implementing a new curriculum without textbooks, amidst sporadic shortage of chalk, the spokesperson of the Education Ministry, showed up at the beginning of the year to announce that, the distribution of textbooks for the new curriculum will start in March 2022. Dear reader, your guess is as good as mine, we are currently in the second week in May and there is no sign of textbooks for our basic schools.

I have followed the activities of the Education Ministry closely from the early weeks of implementing the new curriculum, I can sincerely in all confidence conclude that the pressure being mounted by student leaders, civil society organizations and many Ghanaians on the government to provide textbooks will only be meaningful to the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service in 2024.

On a lighter note, I foresee the gov’t raising giant billboards with captions like “Free textbooks for basic schools, remember us”.

Since the rollout of the new curriculum in 2019, teachers across the entire country are yet to access the requisite learning materials intended to aid teaching and learning in the various basic schools. The politics of procurement was indicated to be one of the major reasons for the delay on providing textbooks by Dr. Yaw Adutwum on the floor of parliament late December 2021.

The flip side of the excuse given by the education minister on the floor of parliament is that, the politics of procurement has a good relationship with the reward system of campaign financiers and political party financing officials. Undoubtedly, one of the biggest Educational pending projects is the absence of textbooks for a new curriculum. It will be a huge fortune for the party financiers who will win the bid to supply the textbooks.

President Nana Akufo – Addo announced the implementation in September 2019 and indicated that the new curriculum would focus on making children confident, innovative, creative thinkers, digitally literate, well - rounded and patriotic citizens but reality is that pupils are direct victims of the frustrations of teachers who do not the learning materials to teach.

A gentleman, who works as a project manager for an NGO that is into assisting communities fight open defecation shared an interesting experience with me, his experience creates a perfect picture to explain why there will be no textbooks after 3 years of implementing new curriculum until 2024.

This zealous young man was employed to be a deputy project manager to handle a project in one of our coastal rural areas. This gentleman was zealously campaigning in the assigned communities and mobilizing the neighboring communities to work in groups to help fight the attitude of open defecation, he was getting results for his efforts.

One day, this direct boss, called him into a meeting, he thanked the young man for his hard work but needed that he is over solving the problems, especially when their donor supports depend on the availability of these problems.

It appears, the Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service is applying the principle of great public relational mechanism instead of realistically addressing the unavailability of textbook. It is a sad reality, that a government is waiting till 2024 to build a political capital out of the absence of textbook for a new curriculum they introduced.