Home EDUCATION ‘History’ textbook sparks social media anger as publisher apologises

‘History’ textbook sparks social media anger as publisher apologises

By
Faith Mankrah
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202
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A textbook purporting to be that which teaches Ghana’s history to pupils in Primaries 3 and 4 of Ghana’s schools has suffered a stillbirth.

The which has been found to contain stereotypical content about Ewes has been met with anger on social media.

Some Ghanaians have since described it as “offensive, divisive and incendiary”.

A large segment of Ghanaians has therefore called on the Ghana Education Service to withdraw the books effective immediately.

Subsequently, Badu Nkansah Limited, publisher of the book, has recalled all copies of the book.

According to the company, “they have not yet met the final approvement threshold,” hence the recall.

In a reaction to the barrage of criticisms against the book, the company in a Press Statement said they are in shock how a limited quantity of the unpublished draft of its book undergoing a review, found its way into the market.

It said it is investigating and will make the results of its investigations public shortly.

https://twitter.com/ASKwashiga/status/1371106947324346368

https://twitter.com/tabi_henry/status/1371131461890359296

https://twitter.com/Citizen__Kay/status/1371041868180557826

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PRESS STATEMENT

APOLOGY FOR OFFENSIVE PUBLICATION

Badu Nkansah limited, a wholly Ghanaian-owned publishing house has been in operation for twenty-four Years. Within these years we have produced educational materials covering all subject areas which has been relied upon for both academic and research work. We wish to bring the following to the attention of Ghanaians:

Following the introduction of the new curriculum by NACCA, we submitted a textbook assessment application for approval for our book HISTORY OF GHANA in January last year.

We received a response to our application from NACCA on 25th September, (reference: NaCCA/G14). The NaCCA raised concerns with portions of the book even though they informed us that the book had satisfied most of the technical and content requirements. They however told us to work on certain aspects of the book further in order for it to meet the expectations of the new curriculum.

An attached comment which accompanied the report detailed areas of particular concern which we are still in the process of complying with.

Unfortunately, whiles 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.

How those few copies found their way to the market is something we are still investigating, and we will make the results of our investigations public when we are done.

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In the meantime, we have called up all copies in circulation with immediate effect since they have not yet met the final approval threshold.

Once again, ours is a brand that values National unity and we have epitomized it for twenty-four years of our existence as a brand. We apologize to all those affected and we wish to assure all Ghanaians that such a thing will never happen again.

God bless our homeland Ghana

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