The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) has announced plans to introduce Quick Response Codes (QR codes) on textbooks to help users differentiate between approved and unapproved ones.

The council made the announcement during an inspection tour of selected public and private schools in Accra.

Director-General of NaCCA, Professor Edward Appiah, said the council had noticed that some schools were using unapproved textbooks and that the QR codes would help to ensure that only approved textbooks were used.

“What we have realised is that in a couple of weeks and days, you hear NaCCA’s name, and it is about whether the books are approved or bad books are in the system. So we have taken it upon ourselves to visit the schools, monitoring and sensitising. Because we realise that sometimes the schools do not even know the difference between approved and unapproved books. And the market is such that publishers will want to sell, so they will bring out anything, and we think that we have to come out this time to sensitise the schools, especially the private schools.”

“So far we have gone to some of the private and public schools. We saw one or two books which were not approved… Of course, we are coming up with QR codes which will be on all approved books so that anybody who buys such books, you can just scan, and you will be able to know whether the book has been approved,” he stated