The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has blamed the lack of an enforcement regime for the National Council for Curriculum Assessment for the circulation of textbooks with bigoted content against Ewes (NaCCA).
Dr. Adutwum said the yet-to-be-approved Ghana Book Development Council Bill will provide the framework for sanctioning such deviant publishers when answering questions in Parliament on Thursday, March 25, 2021.
He was responding to questions from North Tongu MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa about the content of books that made derogatory remarks about the Ewe people.
“Sanctions against publishers like this are provided for in the Ghana Book Development Council Bill. Unfortunately, the NaCCA Act does not provide for that, so as much as you are outraged and do not want to see these things happen, the legal framework in which NaCCA operates does not allow for it; however, the Book Development Council will remedy this deficiency.”
The Education Minister was grilled in Parliament after Okudzeto Ablakwa filed an urgent question demanding that the Minister explain how the books ended up in the public domain.
The books, he said, were “bigoted.”
Members of the Ewe ethnic group took to social media to criticize the books’ content, pointing out stereotypes.
The controversial textbooks had not been approved for use in schools, according to the National Council for Curriculum Assessment.
Badu Nkansah and Nelly Martinson Anim authored History of Ghana, Text Book 3, and Okyere Baafi Alexander authored Golden English Basic 4, both of which were accused of containing bigoted content directed at Ewes.
The publishers later issued an apology.
Source: ATLFMNEWSROOM
