Brouhaha about my book was politically instigated - Prof Quarm

Europa

June 8, 2016 1:02 PM

In an exclusive interview, Prof Quarm told Pulse.com.gh that his book was targeted because of his political affiliation with the opposition New Patriotic Party.

Textbook depicting the head as ‘load carrier’

Author of the controversial “Natural Science for Primary Schools – Pupil’s Book 1,” Joseph Albert Quarm has said political actors were behind the uproar surrounding a classification in his book that said the head was used for ‘carrying load.’

In an exclusive interview, Prof Quarm told Pulse.com.gh that his book was targeted because of his political affiliation with the opposition New Patriotic Party.

He expressed surprise that after the book’s approval five years ago, the issue was just emerging.

“[Those who were criticising the book] should have consulted me for an explanation but they didn’t…I showed my supporting documents showing my book was approved in 2011. Apart from that I am a professional teacher and I will not make such a mistake…So where from all this if it is not politics.”

The author beat the incumbent Member of Parliament for Manso Nkwanta, Grace Addo in the NPP primaries to become the party’s parliamentary candidate for Manso Nkwanta constituency in the Ashanti Region in the November 2016 polls.

The natural science book for primary one pupils sparked controversy and intense public debate about the kind of books prescribed for schools in the country.

Critics, led by the vice president of IMANI Ghana, Kofi Bentil, argued that the book should have rather described the head as containing the brain, which was used for thinking.

However, supporters believed that the description was apt as that was a reflection of what happens in the environment school children were exposed to and that the concept of thinking would be gradually introduced as they moved to higher classes.

Although it was initially denied that the book had been approved, a letter from November 2011 revealed that the book had been approved as “supplementary materials for the teaching and learning of Natural Science at the Lower Primary and Colleges of Education.”

“At the end of the day, they called me at the Ministry and they apologised and GES came out to explain that what I said is a fact; an established fact,” Prof Quarm said.

Europa

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