Accra STEM Academy “Useless” when basic schools that will feed it have no textbooks for four years: Teacher to GES

Accra STEM Academy is “useless” when the basic schools that will feed it have no textbooks for four years and there are still schools under trees. This is a summary of the message a teacher left on the GES Facebook page.

The Ghana Education Service (GES) was told the truth in its face while it was celebrating the progress of the Accra STEM Academy construction, which was progressing steadily.

A concerned teacher who is fervently committed to basic education raised valid concerns about the efficacy of the Accra STEM Academy and other government-built institutions like it. In a post, he reminded the GES that it has failed to provide basic schools with textbooks since the introduction of the new curriculum in 2019.

Given the failure of the government to provide the needed textbooks and the fact that there were still many basic schools under trees, the teacher asked, “How are they going to produce quality students to feed these schools?”.

At the time of this publication, the GES had yet to respond to the questions and probing comments left on the post.

Basic public schools have used the new curriculum for four years and are yet to receive the relevant textbooks from the government.

The first batch of BECE candidates to be assessed using the new curriculum will write their BECE in July this year; however, they will do so without seeing any textbooks supplied by the government since 2020.

Mr. Kofi Asare of Education Watch raised an alarm on this in a TV programme recently when he disclosed that the 2024 BECE candidates who are currently in JHS 3 will write the BECE without having access to government-supplied textbooks.

In the heat of the textbook agitations, the GES and the MoE promised the textbooks would be available for six months from the day the contract was granted to local publishers. The textbooks should have been supplied nearly. Currently, there are not many public schools that can boast of having received the full compliment of textbooks for KG1 to JHS3.

Since the introduction of the famous Free SHS, the government has neglected the basic schools by underfunding the very foundation of Ghana’s education. Basic education has not been prioritized by the current government, resulting in the development of education at the district level.

The post by the GES that led to the reaction of the teacher stated, “Watch the progress at Accra STEM Academy, rising from the ground up and nearing completion.

A testament to progress and innovation in education!” This came along with a video of the face under construction.

The reaction of the teacher was, “The basic schools that will feed these STEM schools have been without textbooks for more than four years now, and some are under trees. How are they going to produce quality students to feed these schools?”

It will be prudent that the GES respond to the comment left on the post officially to update Ghanaians and educators on how far it has gone with the production and supply of textbooks for all schools.

Do you agree with the teacher that Accra STEM Academy “Useless” when basic schools that will feed it have no textbooks for four year: Teacher to GES”?

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