Bolgatanga, May 25, GNA – Youth in the Upper East region, have called on the Government to provide relevant textbooks in support of the rollout of the new curriculum to promote quality and inclusive education.
The youth lamented that two years after the introduction of the new curriculum particularly at the basic level, the Government has failed to make available the necessary teaching and learning materials to support both teachers and students to interact effectively.
The young people said the situation was affecting teaching and learning in the schools and posed danger to the performance of the pupils.
Mr Edward Asekere, the Speaker of the Upper East Regional Youth Parliament, made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of the inauguration of the Regional Parliament in Bolgatanga by the National Youth Authority (NYA).
He said apart from the situation putting financial burden on poor parents to provide textbooks for their wards, many parents especially those in the rural communities bought wrong textbooks for their children, which did not support the new curriculum.
“The situation is worrying because you cannot teach without the textbooks and if you look at how the curriculum is designed, you need the textbooks to be able to teach effectively,” he added.
Mr Asekere who said the situation did not promote quality learning noted that the Free Senior High School policy was at risk of absorbing poor performing students if the situation was not immediately addressed, adding “I think at the end we are not going to have quality education.”
The Speaker also identified the lack of furniture in many schools as a major threat to education in the region and added that most students sat on the bare floor to learn and the situation was not conducive to propel effective academic work.
He, therefore, called on the Municipal and District Assemblies to prioritise education and make an adequate allocation for the construction of furniture to ensure that school children had the necessary infrastructure to learn.
“Every school you visit is an eyesore, a lot of the children are sitting on the floor to study and that is not good because these are the people who will take over from us and if you do not have a very conducive environment you cannot study, so we are appealing to the government to ensure that some of these problems are addressed,” he said.
Mr Francis Takyi-Koranteng, the Upper East Regional Director, NYA, appealed to the youth to use the platform to engage relevant stakeholders for growth and development and desist from being too partisan on national issues.
The Youth Parliament operating under the auspices of the NYA, brought together youth across the region to be nurtured in accordance with the procedures of National Parliament in a bid to prepare them for leadership roles in the future.
It also provides the platform for the youth to interact and engage stakeholders to help address issues that affect their development.
GNA