We don’t intend to limit publication of textbooks – GES

The GES has indicated it does not intend to limit the publication of textbooks following the directive for the immediate withdrawal of unproved textbooks from the public domain by NaCCA. 

The Director-General, Prof Kwasi-Opoku Amankwa of Ghana’s Education Service made the revelation days after the request from NaCCA to the GES calling for the removal of the Badu Nkansah History Textbook for basic 3 and others that have not passed the test for approval and use in basic schools.

In an interview on Asaase radio monitored by Ghanaeducation.org, Prof Opoku Amankwa called on NaCCA to provide frequent updates on approved books to the general public to help avoid such occurrences.

He said there is no intention to cap the publication of textbooks even though over 1,107 books have been approved for use by NaCCA.

 “There shouldn’t be a limitation, I don’t agree with that and as a publisher myself this is something publishers over the years themselves advocated for and somewhere in the early 90s thereabout we agreed that we liberalize the market,” he said as quoted by the Accra-based Asaase Radio.

“When the government was doing it on its own it had some advantages and disadvantages. We think that this is a much better process, however, the market itself needs to be educated on what a book is and what goes into a book,” he told the host of The Asaase Breakfast Show Nana Yaa Mensah.

ALSO READ: NaCCA calls for market withdrawal of unapproved books

According to him, the absence of a limit to the number of textbooks to be published for various subjects should not encourage authors and publishers to sacrifice quality content for speed.

 “We don’t want a situation where you gag people, you restrict people from what they read,” Professor Kwasi-Opoku Amankwa stated.

Source: Ghanaeducation.org