The policy adviser of opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) flag bearer, Nana Akufo-Addo, has described as “lies” the governing National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) campaign message that it has exceeded the universal textbook ratio of three textbooks to one pupil.
Addressing a press conference in Accra on Monday September 19, Mr Boakye Agyarko said the government’s much touted achievements in the distribution of textbooks, as captured in the NDC manifesto and Green Book, only exist in their minds and were a figment of their own imagination.
“The NDC believe they can lie their way into another term. On page 10 of their manifesto, they claim 100 million exercise books have been distributed. Really?” Mr Boakye Agyarko exclaimed.
“They make the exact claim in their Green Book and add that a total of 42 million exercise books were distributed in 2013 and 2014. Does this mean they supplied 58 million exercise books in 2015 alone?” Mr Agyarko asked. “We urge the media to ask for directions to where the evidence must be based.”
Mr Agyarko further said: “According to their manifesto, 12,500,000 mathematics and science textbooks were distributed to public schools between 2013 and 2015. This enabled Ghana to exceed the universal textbook to pupil ratio of three to one. We note, however, that the education sector performance report of 2016 published by the Minister of Education clearly indicates that the core textbook-to-pupil ratio in public schools, both in the national and deprived district level, has been in decline since 2013. At the national level, it fell from 2:2 in 2013/14 to 2:0 in 2014/15 to 1.7 in 2015/16. At the deprived district level, the figures for the corresponding years are 2:1, 1:8, and 1:6, respectively. This data can be found on page 21, Table 13, of the said report. So, if NDC is today telling us that they’ve exceeded the universal textbook ratio of three textbooks to one, it exists in their minds and it’s a figment of their imagination and lies.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
