Education Minister appears before Parliament over controversial textbooks

The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, will on Monday, March 22 appear before Parliament following an urgent question filed last week by North Tongu Member of Parliament (MP) Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.

The question is related to the content of controversial textbooks said to denigrate some ethnic groups – particularly Ewes – in Ghana.

Okudzeto Ablakwa wrote on Monday, March 15: “To ask the Honourable Minister responsible for Education whether the publications titled: History of Ghana, Text Book 3 by Badu Nkansah Publications authored by Badu Nkansah and Nelly Martinson Anim and Golden English Basic 4 authored by Okyere Baafi Alexander both of which contain bigoted content targeted at the Ewe ethnic group have come to his Ministry’s attention; were they approved by any of his Ministry’s agencies and what steps Government is taking to purge our schools and book shops from offensive, divisive and incendiary publications of this nature?”

Many Ghanaians were not happy with the content of the textbooks, which have since been recalled from the market.

According to the publishers, the textbooks have not been approved by the National Council for Curriculum Assessment (NaCCA) and that forms the basis of their surprise to find the books in the market.

NaCCA and the publishers have since apologised for the incident and launched an investigation into the incident.

The publishers have also met with the North Tongu MP and the Volta Caucus, by extension, to settle matters.

On Monday, Dr Adutwum, who is also MP for Bosomtwe, will be on the floor to explain the steps taken by government to weed out such learning materials from the system.

Meanwhile, the Energy Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, will also be in the House on Monday, March 22 to explain the recent power outages experienced in certain parts of the country.