President of the Ghana Publishers Association, Asare Konadu Yamoah, has revealed that the Association has signed contracts with the Ministry of Education for printing of textbooks for basic schools.

Mr Yamoah confirmed that the process to get textbooks published for the basic schools has been ongoing for a while and selected publishers have been notified to get copies of their contracts from the Ministry. He explained that once the Ministry has done its own selection process, it calls the publishers whose books the Ministry deems fit to select and engages them to procure and supply to the schools.

“It is true the contracts have been signed. As I speak to you, all the publishers have submitted their copies to the Ministry and hopefully by Monday, I believe almost all the publishers would have submitted their contracts… So, it has been ongoing up to the point of last week. Some of the due diligence checks were also made, the publishers were called to pick up the contracts, look at it, sign and submit to the Ministry.”
Asare Konadu Yamoah

Commenting on a statement issued by the Ministry of Education on Friday, May 20, 2022, which sugessted that the provision of the textbooks has delayed in achieveing its deadline, Mr Yamoah explained that the 120 days deadline is for the publishers to deliver the textbooks to a designated warehouse to be handed over to the Ministry for onward distribution.

“Actually, it is delivery not completion. 120 days to deliver the books to a designated warehouse or point of delivery as the Ministry would indicate… All things being equal, we hope that the books will be delivered within the time frame.”
Asare Konadu Yamoah

GNAT calls on Education Ministry to expedite textbooks process

On his part, the President of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Rev Isaac Owusu, urged government to supply the needed textbooks to pupils at the basic level before the end of the second term. Rev Owusu noted that despite the fact that the government and the Ghana Publishers Association have had conversations concerning the release of the books, he wants them “to expedite their action”.

“If they are counting 120 days from this week; 120 days, we are looking at 4 months ahead of us where we would be entering the third term of the academic year, where the entire academic year is coming to an end.”
Rev Isaac Owusu

Rev Isaac Owusu further entreated the Education Ministry to “up their game” to make sure that pupils get the textbooks before the close of the second term. He opined that the lack of textbooks and government’s refusal to pay capitation grants has crippled basic education.

“The new curriculum that was introduced in 2019 was ideally to come with its own textbooks that the teachers will use. It is not that GES or the Ministry of Education did a supply and there have been shortages, there hasn’t been any supply at all. So, since 2019, from kindergarten to class six don’t have textbooks.”
Rev Isaac Owusu

The comments by the Ghana Publishers Association and GNAT followed a press statement issued by the Ministry of Education on May 20, 2022, which urged the public to disregard claims that government cannot supply textbooks for basic schools. The Ministry explained that it is working closely with all stakeholders to ensure students in basic schools get the needed texts for their studies.

“The Ministry of Education wishes to assure the public of its commitment to the provision of quality education in all schools in the country and the timely provision of quality textbooks is a priority to the Ministry.”
Education Ministry