Parliament to grill Education Minister over controversial 'Efo juju' textbooks tomorrow

Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum will respond to an urgent question filed in Parliament by the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa on the controversial textbooks stereotyping Ewes.

The authors have been widely lambasted since the books hit the markets.

Mr. Ablakwa subsequently filed an urgent question for the Minister to explain how the books got into the public domain, although they had not been approved.

He also wants the Minister to educate the house on measures the government is “taking to purge Ghanaian students against such publications”.

According to Ablakwa, the book contains “bigoted publications” targeted at denigrating the Ewe ethnic group and should not have been released for public consumption.

“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,” he posted on social media a few days ago.

“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?”

---citinewsroom