Parliament to summon Education Minister to answer questions on controversial 'History of Ghana' textbooks

The Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has revealed that he has asked Parliament for the Education Minister to appear before the House to answer questions regarding the controversial “History of Ghana” textbooks.

The said book and one other have caused public outrage following what the public described as denigrating the Ewe ethnic group and falsely denigrating Ghana’s first President Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

The North Tongu legislator has also described the books as offensive and divisive, demanding such books be withdrawn from the system.

On his Facebook wall, Mr Ablakwa announced on Sunday, March 14, 2021, that “This is to notify all concerned that I have filed an urgent parliamentary question requesting the Minister for Education to appear before the House and respond to the two bigoted publications in the issue.

“The text of my urgent question is as follows: To ask the Honourable Minister responsible for Education whether the publications titled: History of Ghana, Text Book 3 by Badu Nkansah Publications authored by Badu Nkansah and Nelly Martinson Anim and Golden English Basic 4 authored by Okyere Baafi Alexander both of which contain bigoted content targeted at the Ewe ethnic group have come to his Ministry’s attention; were they approved by any of his Ministry’s agencies and what steps Government is taking to purge our schools and bookshops from offensive, divisive and incendiary publications of this nature?”

But in a related development, the publisher of the book, Badu Nkansah, has apologized to Ghanaians.

He insists that even though the book has met most of the technical content requirements, NaCCA “told us to work on certain aspects of the book further in order for it to meet the expectations of the new curriculum.

“Unfortunately, while undergoing the review, a limited quantity of the unpublished draft found its way into the market. We have seen certain snapshots on social media which has generated justified public uproar due to their offensive tone. Though it is not a deliberate attempt to berate such a huge section of our society, we wish to unreservedly apologise for the slip. Our brand stands for national unity, and we currently employ workers who originate from all parts of the country.”