The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) Wednesday meet with the Booksellers Association of Ghana to discuss ways to curb the selling of students textbooks not approved by the Council on the market.
Outgoing Director-General of NaCCA, Mr John Mensah Anang in his address urged textbooks sellers to ensure their materials are user-friendly documents for learners and in synch with standards set by NaCCA for books assessment.
He told booksellers not to countenance business relationships with publishers offering unapproved books adding that a curriculum is a reflection of the collective aspirations of a society and, as such contents in textbooks should reflect.
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment Director-General revealed to the booksellers that books are assessed using the following matrix- content, language, cultural reflections, inclusivity and diversity.
He reiterated the vital role booksellers play in the learning value chain describing them as ‘Gatekeepers’. He said robust schemes in the offing to enable booksellers to detect the efficacy of textbooks with the introduction of a QR code.
Mr Anang urged sellers to deal with publishers who develop textbooks assessed and approved by NaCCA. He hinted Ghana Publishers Association and NaCCA would soon constitute a task force to deal with truant publishers and books.
Commending the outgoing NaCCA Director-General for the education, the Booksellers Association of Ghana said pledged their support in helping NaCCA execute its mandate effectively insofar as textbooks are concerned.
In a related development, the Curriculum Council following the completion of the development of the pre-tertiary curriculum Common Core Programme (CCP) Curriculum has asked publishers to submit their textbooks for assessment.
Thoroughly reviewed and approved textbooks a staff of the Curriculum Council Sunday told EducationWeb.com.gh would be used by Junior High School students after Ghana Education Service implement the curriculum 2022.
According to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) official, the new pre-tertiary curriculum has been submitted to the Management of Ghana Education Service (GES) for implementation in the next academic year.
Asked if there is a criterion for the submission of the textbooks for assessment and approval, he said the textbooks to be submitted by publishers and educational material developers in the country should be based on the new curriculum
“The assessment and approval system will be an ongoing process. Publishers and educational material developers are entreated to submit their books, whenever they are completed, for assessment,” the NaCCA staff told EducationWeb.
He added that “submissions shall be for the learning areas of the Common Core Programme for Basic 7 to 9 including Computing, Arabic, English, French, Ghanaian Language, Science, Social Studies, Maths, Career Technology, R.M.E, etc.”