Volta Chiefs, NaCCA, Youth group warn publishers of bigotry textbooks

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), Chiefs of Volta Region and a group calling itself Concerned Youth of Volta Region have warned publishers of the rage-invoking History textbooks to withdraw them for the blatant inaccuracies contained in them.

The books which are allegedly being used by some schools in the curriculum have been dismissed by NaCCA as being unapproved should not be used as teaching materials in schools.

The warning is to both pre-tertiary schools and black market textbook pimps who cut corners to smuggle curious teaching materials into school curriculum.

In the case of the history textbooks, it was packed with ethnocentric narratives and massive historical revisionism of Ghana’s political history.

For instance, one of the books, “History of Ghana For Basic 6” published by one Badu Nkansah Publications, described Ghana’s first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah as a dictator and one who squandered Ghana’s resources. Yet, Kwame Nkrumah has been the Ghanaian President who did not have a property to his name and was responsible for Ghana’s massive industrialization in the late 1950s.

Another publication, “Golden English Basic 4” pushed the ethnocentric stereotype that people from the Volta Region were prone to resorting to Voodoo to settle disputes.

“All heads of pre-tertiary schools (both private and public), parents/guardians, publishers as well as the general public (are to note) that it is illegal to use unapproved books (textbooks and supplementary readers) in pre-tertiary schools,” a statement from NaCCA said.

Signed by its Acting Director-General, Mr. John Mensah Anang, the statement warned, “the agency will soon embark on random visits to pre-tertiary schools”, adding that “any school found to be using unapproved books shall be brought to book”.

“Similarly, drastic measures shall be taken against the publishers of such books,” the statement further stated.

The statement comes in the wake of the emergence that pre-tertiary students are being fed with pure disinformation courtesy textbooks that are supposed to have been supplied to schools for pedagogical application.

In one textbook, for instance, the history of the Ewe people is so distorted that the Ewes themselves are out of their supposed history and replaced with Guans.

The Chiefs of the Volta Region also ordered the publishers of a history textbook to withdraw it.

At a press conference, the Volta Regional House of Chiefs warned that if the publishers of the controversial ‘History of Ghana’ textbooks do not withdraw that they will take them on in court.

“Some of the contents of the said book, which cast derogatory allusions and innuendos at Ewes, are, to say the least, distasteful and a disgrace to the authors and publishers of the said materials intended to educate the younger generation of this country,” the Chiefs fired.

“We deem it highly reprehensible for those responsible for this offensive publication, to harbor such vile thoughts about their fellow citizens of Ghana in the twenty-first century,” said a statement by the President of the Volta Region House of Chiefs, Togbe Tepre Hodo IV.

“We condemn this shameful conduct in the strongest terms as the act was in a bad taste for us an ethnic group,” the Concerned Youth blasted the publishers.

They have asked for the irksome publications to be withdrawn with immediate effect. This is in line with widespread calls on Ghanaian social media for the withdrawal of the Books.

Meanwhile, the publishers of the controversial history textbooks are claiming that they did not put the books into circulation.

According to Badu Nkansah Limited, the books, are beta versions of what the company intended to present to the NaCCA for use by pre-tertiary schools.

Source: whatsupnewsghana