The Deputy Minister for Education, Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, has announced that the distribution of textbooks to all basic schools in the country is ongoing.

He explained that with the current state of affairs, if all the printers comply with the timelines assigned to them, all regions and districts in the country would have their quota of the books within the next few weeks.

Rev. Ntim Fordjour announced this when he paid a courtesy call on the staff and Management of Buck Press in Accra on Friday to ascertain the progress with printing of textbooks by the company.

Buck Press Limited is one of the printing companies contracted by the Government to print basic science textbooks in the country to be distributed in the Eastern, Ashanti and Bono Regions.

The Company has so far distributed 123,000 textbooks to the various schools in the regions and is in the process of distributing an additional 173,827 textbooks to the regions in the next couple of days.

Inspection of works

During the tour, the Deputy Minister monitored the various printing processes and interacted with the staff before examining some of the finished science textbooks for primary schools.

Rev. Fordjour said it is the commitment of the Government and the Ministry of Education to ensure that, following the reform of the country's new standard-based curriculum, all the textbooks would be ready for effective teaching and learning.

Reduced cost

The Deputy Minister who is also the Member of Parliament for Assin South in the Central Region said the Education Ministry through prudent negotiations saved more than 50 per cent of the estimated cost of printing the textbooks.

He explained that the 50 per cent reduction in the printing cost was attained after the government decided to print the textbooks locally and also ensure that the local printing industry had the opportunity to print the textbooks to boost their operations which would in the long run enhance the Gross Domestic Product of the country.

Rev. Ntim Fordjour reiterated President Akufo-Addo's policy to ensure improvement in education, and therefore, the urgent need for textbooks to be made readily available for all basic schools throughout the country.

Local content development

He said the Ministry engaged local printers and publishers to print the textbooks, ahead of foreign companies because of the Government's confidence in local content.

Rev. Ntim Fordjour commended Buck Press Limited, a printing company, for completing the printing of the basic science textbooks ahead of schedule.

The Minister said the company was given 120 days, from June to September 2022 to print the textbooks, but used 30 days to get the work done, representing over 50 per cent of the textbooks being supplied to the schools.

Capacity to deliver

Mr Francis Nyanin, the Executive Director, of Buck Press, said the company had the capacity to deliver on the task assigned to them saying "we have printed and delivered 60 per cent of the project."

He was confident that the company would finish all the production of the textbooks before the deadline because of the huge investment made in the state-of-the-art equipment.

Background

Buck Press Limited is one of the printing companies contracted by the Government to print basic science textbooks in the country to be distributed in the Eastern, Ashanti and Bono Regions.

The Company has so far distributed 123,000 textbooks to the various schools in the regions, hoping by the close of the day Friday, an additional 173,827 textbooks would be supplied to the regions.

Currently, five local printers-G-PAK Limited, a subsidiary of the Graphic Communications Group Limited; the Buck Press, Appointed Time Printing Limited; Jay Kay Industries Ltd and Sec-print Limited were engaged in printing the textbooks.