VIAM Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, issued a statement on\u00a0Monday in which it condemned the depiction in the textbook and also stated that it\u00a0had not gone through the required assessment and recommendation for use in primary schools.<\/p>\n\u201cIt must be noted that the book in question is not the approved textbook for schools under the Ghana Education Service.\u00a0We can however, confirm that there is only one approved primary 1 textbook titled \u2018Natural Science for Primary Schools: Activity-Based Pupils\u2019 Book 1\u2019 jointly authored by Peter Asiedu, Henric Atta Baa-Yeboah and Ebenezer Agyiri Domptey. On page 62 of this particular book, it is indicated that \u201cour head contains the brain which helps us to think.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ministry wishes to advise against associating the Ministry or the Ghana Education Service with this publication. We also caution heads of schools and parents on the purchase and use of such books on the open market. In case any parent wants to buy a book for his or her children, they should contact the Curriculum Research and Development Division of the Ghana Education Service,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n
The controversy <\/strong><\/p>\nIn his \u2018Natural Science for Primary Schools \u2013 Pupil\u2019s Book 1,\u2019 the author Albert Joseph Quarm stated that the human head is used for carrying loads. This classification has however been heavily criticized with many including the Vice President of IMANI Ghana, Kofi Bentil, calling for an immediate withdrawal of the books from schools.<\/p>\n
But the\u00a0author, has defended his work and now says his textbook was assessed and recommended\u00a0by the GES as a material for teaching and learning. He made this known in a letter he\u00a0released to the media.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”3HzQr6jQ415wb831GhfORdmUwBTnUtrF”]The National Council for Curriculum Assessment at GES, says\u00a0the textbook was assessed\u00a0in 2011 and recommended for schools.<\/p>\n
Nothing erroneous with the depiction<\/strong><\/p>\nSpeaking to Citi News<\/strong>, the Director of the National Council for Curriculum Assessment, Charles Aheto Tsegah, dismissed suggestions that the function of the head as stated in the textbook was erroneous.<\/p>\nHe explained that in 2011, his outfit was mandated to do a thorough assessment of \u201call books that are used in schools, so yes they approved it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aheto Tsegah also argued that depicting the head as a load carrier \u201cis not wrong\u201d because \u201cit is true, the head is used for carrying load, and that is a fact.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not only in Ghanaian culture, in the case of East Africa, they don\u2019t carry load on their head, they hung the strip of that load carrier around their head and carry it on their back, so the head is used for carrying load, you can challenge that, and it is actually part of our cultural way of life so I don\u2019t know where the error is,\u201d he\u00a0insisted.<\/p>\n
The textbook didn’t\u00a0capture other uses of the head<\/strong><\/p>\nHe\u00a0noted that although there are other functions of the head which the book failed to capture, that does not make the book sub-standard.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe there are other uses and the book doesn\u2019t mention it, that is the issue. But it is not a wrong statement. Another fact again is that, there are other uses of the head that were not stated in the book, maybe we can say that the book does not present adequate knowledge about how the head is used; it doesn\u2019t make that statement in the book wrong. The point is that the head is used for carrying load and that is a fact, you can\u2019t change it,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
By: Godwin A. Allotey\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n