General News of Wednesday, 17 March 2021

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Anti-Ewe textbook saga: Let’s give NaCCA more powers – Afenyo-Markin

Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, deputy Majority Leader Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, deputy Majority Leader

Majority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin has averred that the lawmaking chamber must give more powers to the National Council for Curriculum Assessment, NaCCA.

According to him, the move will help forestall the incidence of controversial publications like the anti-Ewe book that has triggered nationwide outrage.

The Effutu MP made submissions in Parliament today while contributing to a statement around the issue. “Regrettably, we didn’t give them the enforcement powers to confiscate such materials. We didn’t.

“We didn’t also give them the power that for all books that will be published outside of approved textbooks, there is a pre-requirement for NaCCA to clear it.

“So Mr Speaker, after all the talk, if we want to stop some of these things, we would do so in giving NaCCA the power. Because Mr Speaker in all of the criticism, the question is; what was the regulator doing?” he added.

He stressed that “the regulator has no power” unlike the Food and Drugs Authority which had the right to confiscate products that they had not approved.

Publisher of the controversial textbooks, Badu Nkansah, earlier this week confirmed that even though copies of the book had reached the market, NaCCA had yet to approve them.

He also apologized for the mistake and said they had ordered a total recall of the said books.