Member of Parliament (MP) for Builsa South and Deputy Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament, Dr. Clement Abas Apaak has brought to light a glaring deficiency in the country’s education system.

According to Dr. Apaak, students currently writing the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) have not had access to the necessary textbooks from Junior High School 1 to Junior High School 3, a situation he describes as an embarrassment and an indictment of the current administration.

“It is an embarrassment and an indictment that we still don't have the full complement of textbooks based on a curriculum that has been in effect since September 2019,” Dr. Apaak stated.

This lack of essential educational resources has left many students struggling to prepare adequately for their examinations, raising concerns about the overall quality of education being delivered.

The absence of textbooks is attributed to government's failure to allocate sufficient funds for their printing, despite the introduction of a new curriculum nearly five years ago.

Dr. Apaak criticised government's financial priorities, highlighting several instances of what he terms as “financial mismanagement.”

He pointed out that the government had allocated substantial sums of money to projects with questionable outcomes while neglecting crucial sectors like education.

“The same government, which cannot find money to pay for the printing of sufficient textbooks for our wards in basic school based on the new curriculum, gave away 12 million dollars to a company for no work done at Pwalugu, gave away 2.5 million dollars for feasibility studies for a sky train, and paid 399 million cedis for the biggest pit,” Dr. Apaak asserted.

This year’s BECE began which begun on Monday, 8 July is expected to end on Friday, 12 July 2024.