Executives of the association at the media briefing
Members of the
Ashanti Region Writers and Publishers Association (ASHWAPA) have appealed
passionately to the government to defer the implementation of the new Ghana
Education Service (GES) submission guideline until the next academic year to
enable them to prepare adequately for it.
According to them,
the implementation of the regulatory tweak, which is being introduced as part
of the new education curriculum commencing 2019/2020 in line with the ongoing
reforms in the sector, would hurt their businesses as they have in stock books
for sale for this academic year.
Addressing the
media in Kumasi, ASHWAPA’s Secretary, James Offeh Ford, said members of the
association would be driven out of business if the implementation is done for
the 2019/2020 academic year.
He stated that
the National Council for Curriculum Assessment (NaCCA) delayed in releasing the
new guideline for submission of books for assessment when the new curriculum
was launched by GES in April this year, hence the call for extension.
He wants the
implementation to start in the next academic year for them not to incur losses
and ensure fairness and effective competition in the book market.
Mr. Offeh Ford
also wants government to review downwards the cost for submitting a book by
authors and publishers for assessment and approval in the new arrangement.
He claimed the
new guideline had pegged the cost of submitting six sets of a 200-page book at
GH¢7,800 per author, pointing out that the new policy would undoubtedly stifle
their businesses, which would eventually lead to job losses in the publishing
industry.
“It means that if
you have three sets of books you will have to pay GH¢2,300. These new costs
will strangle our businesses and kill jobs in the industry,” Mr. Offeh Ford
stressed.
The secretary
appealed to the Ministry of Education to prevail on GES to allow them to sell
their current stocks of books, which he said were prepared in accordance with
the new curriculum, so as to mitigate their loses.
“Schools are resuming
and if books are not available on the market, it would adversely affect
academic work, and Ghanaian children will be at the receiving end,” Mr. Offeh
argued.
The association
was equally not happy about a decision by NaCCA to introduce a short code that
would be used by the public to authenticate GES approved textbooks, describing
the move as unnecessary.
For him, if
publishers of foreign textbooks are allowed to sell without going through the
rigorous assessment of the GES, such code would only create additional
bureaucracy that would serve as a conduit for some people to take money from
authors and publishers.
He prayed for government’s intervention in all these to save their businesses from collapsing, which he believes would also hurt the national economy.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi
