Children At Risk From Politics, Road Vehicles

Writer: Nana Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng

Nana Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng, former Chairman of National Media Commission (NMC), Ghana

Books don’t often make the headlines in Ghana these days. Indeed, when you hear the word “book”, it is often followed by “long”; the two words together form “booklong”, a negative and derogatory term for intellectuals portrayed in a hostile materialistic climate as boorish and overbearingly highbrow.

Books must be avoided; if you doubt this, check for the evidence in Ghanaian movies. You will find cars, houses, bars, booze and everything else but never books.

Surprise, the Ghana media has been full of books all of last week. You couldn’t step anywhere without seeing the word book in some headline in print or online; it was in our ears on the radio and in our faces from every screen.

Sadly, it was all for the wrong reasons. Textbooks have been denounced and the authors and publishers have been taken to the cleaners, and understandably so.

So what is the whole hoo-ha about? As you can appreciate, when you hear the noise level go beyond the decibel scale, you know for sure it is about politics.

And so it is in this case. Here is the story in short: some individuals and groups are angry about the contents of a number of textbooks for children in public schools.

Three books in particular, History of Ghana for Basic 6 by Golden Publications; History of Ghana Textbook 3 by Badu Nkansah Publications; and Golden English Basic 4 also by Golden Publications.

Specifically, objections have been raised because History of Ghana for Basic 6 carries content that objectors say denigrates Dr Kwame Nkrumah and the CPP.

History of Ghana Textbook 3 features “A song that shows the Ewes identity” which is seen as distasteful and not fit to be taught to children and Golden English Basic 4 displays “Efo agrees to prepare juju for the players”, which stereotypes Ewes and puts them in a bad light.

In Ghana, textbooks are assessed and approved by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment ( NACCA) which claims that the books in question had not been approved but had been put in circulation by its publishers on their own.

NACCA’s assertion has been questioned by many people who point to the widespread distribution of the books and wonder whether that could be possible without official approval.

The Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has announced that he has filed an urgent question on the floor of Parliament for the Education Minister, Dr Yaw Adutwum, to explain circumstances surrounding the circulation of the controversial textbooks.

Other groups and notable citizens have raised their voices too. The Volta Regional House of Chiefs have condemned what it describes as “this singular demonstration of tribal bigotry and prejudice” in a statement, and called on those responsible for the “offensive publication, to withdraw the same from circulation and to destroy every part of the offending material”.

The Convention People’s Party, CPP, has also issued a statement similarly condemning the publication of the textbooks and calling for their withdrawal. Furthermore, the CPP has set up a four-member committee to investigate the issue.

Following the protests and condemnations, NACCA has directed that “all unapproved textbooks being sold on the market be withdrawn with immediate effect”. NACCA says that publishers who fail to withdraw their books will “face the full rigours of the law”.

It is doubtful that NACCA’s directive will bring the matter to a swift close and even if it goes off the boil for the moment, it will resurface because the issues involved go beyond just these textbooks.

The bigger picture is the politicisation of our history, especially the history of the latter phase of the independence struggle. The facts must be clear enough because we have documents that cover the period.

However, history has become compromised by political propaganda even before independence in 1957.

This situation in which the parties deployed history to their advantage is neither strange nor too problematic. What is unacceptable is for such propaganda to become the “official version” to be taught in schools.

The distasteful portrayal of Ewes in the books play into a larger picture of disturbing developments in recent times in which a small number of people have raised the possibility of dissidence in the Volta Region.

The conflation of ethnicity and politics is one of the causes of political tension and violence in many Africans countries and it is reckless, to say the least, for the authors and publishers of these books to put such material that was bound to inflame passions.

As the saying goes, there is a silver lining in every cloud; in this case, this unfortunate incidence provides us with the opportunity to look at the big question of our history and our cultural landscape and how they should be disseminated, including teaching in schools.

We need to have an official version of our history based on the facts and facts alone. Parliament must work with our institutions of higher learning to select a non-partisan group of academics and intellectuals to form an official history committee to come out with a factual and accurate history once and for all.

We need crossing wardens

Ghana’s schoolchildren are not only at risk from political propaganda masquerading as history but also from physical harm and even death as they walk along or cross our country’s streets and roads.

Last Monday, I was badly shaken when a motorbike rider hit and dragged two children for a considerable distance when cars stopped for the children to cross the road after school.

Cars from both directions stopped on a single track road at Dzorwulu in Accra when drivers saw that a number of children had grouped at a popular crossing point near their school. Drivers used hand signals to stop drivers behind and they all stopped.

Somehow, the biker ignored all the hand signals as well as the cars that had stopped and rode at a considerable speed down the middle. At that point, the children had taken advantage of the stopped vehicles and started to cross the road.

They were right smack in the middle of the road when the biker smashed into them. He claimed not to have seen the children.

The biker was at fault because he was speeding in a built-up area and took no notice of the other cars which had stopped for the children to pass. But that was not the only cause of the accident.

Food sellers had taken over the sidewalk along that stretch of the street. They had congregated especially around the place where schoolchildren cross precisely because that is where the children buy food after school.

The effect is that neither the children nor motorists can see the children because the food sellers are in the line of sight.

Why do the local authorities allow food sellers and other traders to take over pavements and sidewalks in all towns and cities in the country when there are designated markets?

In 2019, the year for which records are available, 6,590 pedestrians were killed. We don’t have the details so cannot tell how many of them were killed crossing the road or how many were children.

However, this number can be reduced considerably if local authorities clear pavements of traders and mark out clearly the points at which people can cross busy roads and streets.

But to make it really safe for children to cross, I suggest that the government hires “crossing wardens” to take charge of busy crossing for children to cross after school.

Known as lollipop ladies in the UK, crossing wardens, usually wearing bright reflective materials hold stop-go signs or “lollipop” signs to stop traffic and allow children to pass. No cost is too much to make our children safe.

First published in the Mirror

 

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