Ghana Publishers Association apologises for “offensive Ewe textbook”

The Ghana Publishers Association has apologised to Ghanaians for the “poor work” done on the “History of Ghana – Textbook 3, by Badu Nkansah Publications, which portrayed “Ewes in a negative manner.

The Association is, therefore, calling for calm and assured the public of its commitment to apply its internal disciplinary mechanisms to the publisher.

This was contained in a statement signed by Mr Asare Konadu Yamoah, the President of the Association, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

“The Association has been following recent issues in respect of some textbooks published for schools in Ghana.

“We have observed the History of Ghana – Textbook 3, one such book of the current public concern and we acknowledge that some aspects of its content are in bad taste”, it said.

The statement said over the past few months, the Association had been working closely with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), a State Agency responsible for the approval of books for pre-tertiary institutions to ensure that the processes for approving the content of textbooks were rigidly enforced.

The Association, the statement said, had achieved a lot of successes and was optimistic that the situation faced now would not happen again.

It said since the liberalisation of the publishing of Teaching and Learning Materials (TLMs) by the Ministry of Education in 1997, Ghanaian publishers had consistently provided quality materials for use in schools and by the general public.

“We assure the Ghanaian public of our continued commitment to publishing TLMs for the promotion of quality education and literacy for national development and unity”.

The NaCCA in a statement on March 15, said the ‘controversial’ textbook by Badu Nkansah Publication had not been approved by the Council.

“The said books are also not listed on the Council’s website among other approved books for academic work,” it said.

The Council assured the public that it had met with one other publication responsible for one of the flagged books, Golden Publication, “and has asked them to withdraw all the unapproved offending books stated and any other from the market and submit copies for assessment and approval which they have complied with.”