Lack of textbooks in basic schools is caused by poor planning – Policy analyst

Policy analyst, Geoffrey Ocansey has blamed government for poor planning in the teaching and learning of students at the basic school level.

According to him, if government had been on point with planning, implementation of the new standard-based curriculum with the required learning materials would not have become an issue.

He criticised government for always rushing to plan policies and all “but when it gets to the implementation stage you will see the entire thing was poorly planned.”

In an interview with Eunice Tornyi on the Happy Morning Show aired on e.TV Ghana and HappyFM, Geoffrey Ocansey stated, “If you shift implementing plans consistently and as a technical planner this goes beyond 3 months delay, then it means something is very wrong. We’ve run a whole year without the textbooks and this has never happened in the history of Ghana.”

The policy analyst revealed teachers have been compromising in teaching students with parents also confused on the books to get their wards. “We were expecting this to be fixed and a stakeholder meeting held to assure us that everything will be clear next year but that has not been done. But now we’ve heard government make another promise. If a promise comes again after a long wait period, it only brings panic.”

Basic school teachers in Ghana have for the past few years been faced with the challenge of implementing a new standard-based curriculum without the required learning materials.

Since its rollout in 2019, teachers across the country are yet to access the requisite learning materials intended to aid teaching and learning in the various basic schools.

The new standards-based curriculum which was implemented in September 2019 was rolled out from Kindergarten to Class 6 in primary schools.

President Nana Akufo-Addo who announced the implementation indicated that the new curriculum would focus on making children confident, innovative, creative-thinkers, digitally literate, well-rounded, and patriotic citizens.