Let us put the facts on the table.
The Ministry of Education, through the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), is undertaking a comprehensive revision of the Basic School Curriculum from KG1 to Primary 6.
That process is ongoing. The revised curriculum has not yet been approved for implementation.
Until that happens, schools, both public and private are expected to continue teaching with the existing approved curriculum and NaCCA-approved textbooks.
Government’s position is clear: when the revised curriculum is approved, Government will procure the requisite textbooks and Teaching and Learning Materials (TLMs) to support its implementation.
What is unacceptable is the emerging practice in some private schools where parents are being pressured to purchase textbooks allegedly developed by individual writers or in collaboration with schools, despite those materials not having received NaCCA approval and, in some cases, at exorbitant prices.
Education must not become a marketplace for exploiting parents.
Parents and Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) must speak up against the practices by the proprietors of these private schools who are imposing unnecessary financial burdens on families and profiting on it.
And there is now a stronger institutional mechanism to deal with this.
NaCCA has been empowered by Parliament to enforce compliance and take action against schools using unapproved textbooks. The Council is already in the field monitoring schools and will sanction institutions found to be in breach of the law.
We all have a responsibility to support Government to ensure that the proprietors of these Private schools are using NACCA approved textbooks and stop the exploitation of parents.
You are paying high for these textbooks because the proprietors of some of these private schools are not using the approved textbooks by NACCA because of their commercial interests.
By Hashmin Mohammed
