Story: Atta KWAKU BOADI
Ghana yesterday joined the rest of the world to mark the World Teachers’ Day.
The day is celebrated 5th October annually to appreciate the work of teachers.
The global theme for this year’s celebration was, “Teachers at the heart of education recovery”.
However, in a statement issued to the media on the day, the Deputy Ranking Member on Education Committee of Parliament, Dr Clement Apaak whiles appreciating the hard working teachers in the country could not hide his displeasure over delay of text books for teachers in Ghana .
The Builsa South Member of Parliament( MP) noted that the work of the teachers was irreplaceable and further appreciated them for their services and sacrifices to society and the nation.
“Happy Teachers’ day, though I know many teachers are not happy in Ghana because their conditions of service are not optimum. This is why we must feel obligated as a people to ensure that the right conditions are in place to illicit the very best from our teachers.
He further noted that, the challenges teachers face were numerous.
One such challenge in recent times, the statement said, was the lack of textbooks in excess of two years after the introduction of the standard based curriculum.
The Builsa South legislature wondered how the basic school teachers were going to help with educational recovery without textbooks based on a basic curriculum available.
“After several assurances, including one given by the Minister for Education, Hon. Yaw Adutum, on Thursday June 10th 2021 on the floor of Parliament, in response to a question I asked, we are still waiting for the textbooks”, he said. .
He claimed in a video in possession of Today that the Minister in response to his insistence for timeliness on when the textbooks would be available, said the books would be in schools three months from June 10th 2021, the day he asked the question.
Today (referring to yesterday) is October 5, 2021, International Teachers’ Day, and we still have no textbooks for our basic schools”, he opined.
To this end, Dr Apaak called on government to apologise to teachers, pupils and Ghanaians for the failure to make textbooks available. “Government must ensure that our basic schools get textbooks immediately. It’s long overdue”, the statement said.
