Textbooks & Teaching /Learning Materials: The Narrative Must Change

I have written a number of times that, currently, we do not have education in Ghana; rather, we have commercialization of information and superficiality. I have taken that stance due to the entrenched position we have taken to practise dated systems of learning rather than adopting contemporary dynamic approaches to teaching/learning. If I myself had any doubt about that position, this nauseous argument about teaching/learning materials for the revised curriculum has cemented my opinion.

In the last month, I have had to listen to personalities who should be savvy about education verbally flog the Government about failing to supply textbooks and teaching/learning materials. Metro TV featured a former Deputy Minister of Education who echoed that sentiment. A key personality from GES has rightly explained that curriculum revision does not mean a complete overhauling of the contents. Though changes have been introduced, the bulk of content has remained.   I expected the former minister, who stated that new textbooks were printed for the schools in 2016, to explain to the host that those textbooks could still be used to teach. However, he also wailed the absence of textbooks.

I have a question for all those screaming for hardcopy textbooks: Where were you when education moved into the 21^st Century? The absence of hardcopy texts in no way obstructs effective teaching/learning. The foreword to the new English syllabus states in part: The curriculum encourages the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for teaching and learning – ICTs as teaching and learning materials (emphasis mine). Wherein lies the justification for the hullaballoo for hardcopy textbooks? The World Wide Web has enabled the placement of enormous quality, innovative, interactive teaching/learning materials on the Internet, which information proactive teachers can access directly.

There are authentic, open online learning resources which are available to teachers across the globe. Google has brought virtual reality to the classroom. The Google Classroom App makes teaching/learning interesting, innovative, interactive. The community dialogue that accompanies the App. enables teachers to share experiences across the world. Questions and challenges can be shared for constructive, innovative responses. Edutopia and Empatico are similar sites that offer a lifeline to teachers across school levels. Enthusiastic teachers take advantage of such resources to improve teaching and classroom interaction. There is opportunity for teachers to explore synchronous or asynchronous channels in the virtual classroom. Indeed, there is no shortage of teaching/learning materials. However, there is a list of qualities in acute shortage: Innovation, commitment, enthusiasm, diligence, dynamism, critical perspectives, all capped by failure to utilize resources effectively.

One heavily underutilized resource is the android or iPhone which any teacher can afford these days. Through that medium, a teacher can access online resources to teach the new syllabus. Parents can guide their children to utilize the former’s phone (or computers) to research good learning materials online. All the telecommunication companies in the country claim variously that where there is a sky, their networks can be accessed. This is the time to test their claim. If teachers/learners are unable to access the syllabus and helpful materials online from location, the telecoms, not the Government, should be taken to task.

One must deconstruct the situation in order to get the actual picture. For many a Ghanaian teacher, teaching implies a physical classroom with a writing board. It is difficult to imagine other alternatives; such elements prefer to maintain the status quo. Therefore, the possibility of online teaching/learning resources is the remotest reality. The absence of textbooks implies failure. Additionally, hardcopy textbooks has financial implications for a cross-section of the publishing industry. Materials can be sold online, but given our penchant for sticking to old ways, one wonders whether such options have occurred to publishing stakeholders.

If one brought back the Effective or Practical English books or the Primary English Courses, one could teach the new syllabus effectively. What is needed is a teacher’s ability to adapt text to contemporary situations, locate lessons in pragmatic analysis, help learners to apply text in practical terms in order to make meaning out of them. Such measures would equally ensure that learners take the centre, initiate some of the learning processes. In such situations, the teacher becomes the facilitator who helps the learner to develop a sense of autonomy in the learning process. That is the innovation the system needs to become education again.

New textbooks would not automatically imply teacher innovation, commitment, as well as learner enthusiasm. If the apathy does not change, nothing would. Above all, if we do not abjure commercialization of information in order to target knowledge, we would continue to dig our own graves. The only way to reverse the degeneration of education is to yank the system from the clutches of the 18^th Century, flung it into the 21^st Century, so that we can pursue the Knowledge Economy. Only the strongest act of willpower can achieve that. The challenge is not about the absence of hardcopy textbooks and teaching/learning materials. It is the test of educating the heart and mind for human-centred ideas that promote the quality of human existence through dignity, diligence, determination, and responsibility. Let’s work towards changing the narrative to that effect.  Our call!