Basic schools in Sissala East Municipality are facing various logistical challenges including the inability to provide textbooks for effective teaching and learning.
The area is currently short of 78,000 textbooks and this has contributed to the poor performance of students in Basic Education Certificate Examination, said Ghana Education Service.
“From the last supply of core textbooks to Sissala East in 2010, there has since been a shortage of 78,504 core textbooks in schools up to date whilst enrolment increases,” Mr Godfred Kanton, Assistant Director in Charge of Supervision GES, said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency.
The Municipality needs Core Mathematics, Integrated Science, English and Social Studies textbooks to correspond with the increasing enrolment in kindergarten, primary and junior high schools.
“These, aside also includes teachers’ textbooks and guide which will enable them to prepare lessons adequately to teach youngsters in schools,” Mr Kanton said.
The current school population stands at 4,260 at the KG; 11, 631 at basic school and 3,735 at the Junior High level.
Each school child is expected to have four core textbook each but the KGs are lacking 17,040 core textbooks, the Basic Schools lack 46, 524 core text books whilst the Junior high school needs 14, 940 core textbooks.
The deficiency is affecting learning outcomes in schools in the Sissala East municipality as the past years registered failures at the BECE with the worst being recorded in 2015 and 2017.
The issue of lack of text books has come up in several platforms as part of challenges facing education in the municipality
Mr Kanton said: “For close to nine years, various governments have always said textbooks would be supplied to schools but have failed to do so”.
The impact of the absence textbooks in schools has been greatly felt by all – “even the teachers are affected as they may not get enough materials to prepare lessons for teaching”, he said.

By: Balu Mohammed