Aviation Ministry to open Wa Regional Airport on Oct 15

As part of Government’s commitment to promote seamless air travel and connectivity within the country, the Ministry of Aviation will open the Wa Regional Airport for commercial flights on October 15, 2019.

A statement issued in Accra by Mr Joseph Kofi Adda, the Minister of Aviation, said the Africa World Airlines would undertake its official commercial flight on the day.

It said the commencement of the commercial flight operations to the Wa Regional Airport was due to the successful testing and confirmation of the pavement condition of the runway and other facilities that meet international standards of safety.

The statement said the feat has been achieved in collaboration with the Ghana Airports Company Limited and the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority and the local Airlines operating in the country.

“This forms part of government’s pledge to encourage and support local airlines and entrepreneurs to establish strong private airlines that can fully utilize all the nation’s route rights in line with government’s vision to make the nation an aviation hub within the Sub-Region,” it said.

It said it is expected that the commencement of the commercial flight to Wa would further promote economic and commercial activities between the Upper West Region and the various regional capitals in the country.

Source: GNA

 

Ghana Book Publishers unhappy with the rejection of old supplementary textbooks

The Ghana Books Publishers Association (GBPA) has expressed concern about the abrupt change in the Ghana Education Service new curriculum for the 2019/2020 academic year saying it has affected their businesses.

The GBPA’s role is to develop textbooks when the syllabus is provided and presented to them by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) for evaluation; and the process of developing books and distributing them takes a period of 90 to 150 days.

Speaking at a media briefing on Thursday Mr Elliot Agyare, President of GBPA, said the GBPA’s concern is with the inability to appreciate the role textbook procurement plays in national development at the policy level as all the educational institutions have been told to ignore the old supplementary textbooks.

Mr Agyare said the new directive to schools “not to buy the books of the old curriculum” has not helped the situation as book sellers are now faced with a new demand during their best period for book sales- when a new academic year begins.

He said in the past, an allowance period for proposal submissions by publishers was extended to them to enable them take their time with the development process adding that the implementation of the new curriculum should have been delayed to enable members to clear their old stock and at the same time develop products to meet the new demand.

Mr Agyare said about GH¢15 million worth of supplementary books are currently in their warehouses due to the emerging situation and called for government’s intervention to alleviate their burden.

He expressed the hope that the NaCCA would overcome existing challenges and help in the selection of the appropriate books to advance the teaching and learning process in the country.

Even though teachers have been provided with guidelines and a teacher’s pack to mitigate the absence of textbooks in the classrooms for the new academic year, efforts should be made to encourage the use of the old supplementary textbooks for back-ups as it enhances the learning process, Mr Agyare said.

Source: GNA