Government has hailed the mark improvement in the selection process of textbooks for primary and secondary schools nationwide following the November 23, 2017 reorganization of the National Textbooks and Teaching Materials Accreditation Board.
The MP’s worries centered on the chaos, confusion and corruption that rocks the process at the expense of quality education despite efforts made by government to bring the much-needed order in the sector.
Absence of order in the sector the MP said deprives pupils and students of quality tools which prevents teaching of science, technology, mathematics and engineering –areas he said could answer the question of youth employability in the country.
Dion Ngute in his reply to the worry said the national textbooks and teaching materials and accreditation board is serenely pursuing the implementation of the textbook reforms and consolidating the gains acquired so far.
“The selection of textbooks and teaching materials in primary and secondary schools is undoubtedly a fundamental step in the process of improving our educational system.
The reform of the school textbook in our country follows the reorganization of the national textbooks and teaching materials accreditation board on 23rd November 2017.
The aim of this reform was to make the textbook evaluation and selection process more objective and transparent,” the PM explained to lawmakers while acknowledging shortcomings registered in the process.
“I will like to note however that, they are cases where mistakes were discovered during the process. This was the case for example with the list of textbooks selected for the 2019/2020 school year where an error from the publisher was found in the English textbook for the Cours Preparatoire class,” Dion revealed, adding that the mistakes were corrected following a communique by the President of the board which informed the educational community of the unfortunate situation.
He stated that there has been no change in the official list of textbooks because of the new policy which allows for selection of one textbook to be used for six years instead of one year in the past. He assured that the production of textbooks following the reform of the basic education curriculum would be complicated by 2022 as well as saluted the substantial fall in the prices in this sub sector is substantial.
Dion Ngute equally got quizzed by Hon. Roger Nkodo Dang who expressed worries over the working conditions of Eco guards working in protected areas and absence of social equity in the redistribution of proceeds from the exploitation of proceeds from abundant wildlife resources between the ministry of Forestry and Wildlife and that of Finance as well as management of forest and wildlife resources in general.
The PM in response talked about measures in the pipeline to prohibit the exportation of raw timber in 2022 while strengthening the training of Eco guards and partnership agreements to better conserve the country’s fauna.
By Doh Bertrand Nua
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