MoE, GES yet to provide textbooks, ignore their justifications – Head teacher

A Headteacher who spoke to Adom FM on anonymity on 8th July 2022 indicated that no public school has been supplied with test books as far as he is aware. According to him, teachers have to copy comprehension passages on the chalkboard and so many teachers are reluctant to do that. He added that as facilitators, the new curriculum requires learners to go and find things for themselves however with the non-provision of textbooks, it is just difficult for learners to find things for themselves to acquire knowledge.

 

MoE, GES yet to provide textbooks, ignore their justifications -Current textbooks supplied

 

“As I speak now, lower primary pupils study eight subjects while upper primary pupils study nine to ten subjects, but no textbook has been supplied to schools for any of these subjects” The anonymous headteacher, who heads a school comprising KG. Primary and JHS said.

Answering questions on how the students are able to learn and are preparing for their examination, he said, teachers are doing all the research to provide the needed guidelines for the learners to acquire knowledge.

He added that, although the Ministry of Education has disclosed that some textbooks have been printed, they are yet to get copies of these books. “The textbooks have not arrived at the headquarters for it to be supplied to the regions, then to the various districts and schools.” He added.

According to him, the government has not provided a single marker for schools that use whiteboards in public schools to write. Chalk was also not supplied in term one of the current academic year, however, some were provided for teaching and learning in term 2. He lamented that it is just too challenging to manage the public school, given that the government is not proactive when it comes to providing basic essentials and the needed funding for managing the schools.

READ: Public basic schools are suffering, even GHS10/pupil a year is never paid – Headteacher

In the face of all these, he quizzed how the government expects head teachers to run the schools.

In a related development, he added that the government’s failure to finance the activities and management of basic schools in Ghana has compelled many head teachers to run the schools from their personal pockets.

The government of Ghana only makes GHS10.00 per learner per annum available to public schools for taking care of expenses related to the learner, which includes the end-of-term examination. He was quick to add that, the funds do not come regularly as required and that the government is in debt for several terms up to date. In the 2019/2022 academic year, the government paid for only term one, leaving terms two and three which are still outstanding, The 2020/2021 term saw the government paying for the 1st and second trench and no funds have been made available for the current 2021/2022 academic year.

The head teacher added that end-of-term examinations in public schools have become a big bottleneck from the second term of the 2019/2022 academic year. The GES gave a directive that parents should not be made to pay for printing fee, which is collected by schools for running and administering examinations.

Source: Ghana Education News