GES Director- General To Be Sacked?

Information picked up by The Anchor suggests, the Director-General (D-G) of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwah, may be on his way out of office over his recent gaffe’s suggestion government could be in the process of reviewing its flagship Free Senior High School (SHS) policy.

Although, a section of the public believes his claim may be true considering the many challenges bedeviling the otherwise commendable policy, insiders hinted this paper there are intense push to fire him, for consistently opening his mouth, too wide, at the wrong time.

Even though unconfirmed, speculationsare that there is a simmering bad-blood between the GES Director-General and the EducationMinister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum; hence the former’s recent pronouncement may be the final nail in the coffin.

Professor Opoku-Amankwah, though following the backlash after his comment hurriedly backtracked within a space of 12hours and issued a rejoinder, The Anchorhas gathered his superiors; particularly at the Ministry, are deeply unhappy about his posturing, a situation which has put his job on the line.

The GES boss on Thursday, July 21, speaking on Accra-based JoyNews’‘Upfront’ programmewhiles answering a question posed by the host said, the GES is reviewing the policy to determine how much parents can pay following challenges with the Free SHS policy.

However, in a statement dated July 22, 2022, sighted by The Anchor, he claimed, “the headline is misleading and does not reflect the import of the story”.

In a twist, Prof. Opoku-Amankwasaid, “For the avoidance of doubt, the GES is not undertaking any review of the FSHS. Any such review of the FSHS Policy is the sole prerogative of the President and the government: As an Agency, the GES implements government policies and programmes in pre-tertiary education.”

First clash

But some have cited an earlier clash between the two this year, concerning millions of dollars of a World Bank grant, which was initially reported as allegedly missing under the watch of the education minister.

Recall that on May 25, there were reports alleging that the Minister had been in a phantom training scheme for teachers worth $1.2 million dollars, funded by the World Bank.

According to the reports, correspondence from Professor Opoku-Amankwa, indicated that he was unaware of the training of over 40,000 teachers on the digital literacy platform.

It further alleged that the World Bank, as part of its investigations to establish that the training of the teachers took place, as claimed by the ministry, officially wrote to the Director-General of the GES to confirm the said training.

The report cited a letter signed by Prof. Opoku-Amankwa, saying he was “unaware that any such training has taken place”.

But in that scandal, Dr Adutwum came out vehemently to debunk the D-G’s account saying,contrary to the reports that the Bank was investigating the ministry, before releasing the $1.2 million, the funds had already been released to the ministry after it had successfully trained 40,042 on five digital literacy courses, which were verified by the World Bank through education sector development partners.

It is believed that the open contradictions between the two came about as a result of the seemingly not-so-cordial relationship between the two, reason that issue was played out in the media the way it did.

Some have mentioned that, the two were probably not in good terms, long before that scandal in May, broke in the media.

For others, Prof Opoku Amankwah’s claim that a review of the Free SHS policy was underway isconsidered by some, as unbecoming of a Director-General of an important institution such as the GES.

The embattled Director-General told host of Upfront, Raymond Acquah, the review exercise was geared at determining which of the cost components government can relinquish to parents to pay.

“…we can do the analysis and then come up and say that, ok, to give Raymond quality education, it will cost this much. Within that cost, these are the items in the cost.

“Then we will all put it out there and say this item, we can make do of it, and it will not affect quality, this item, I think we can get parents to pay,”

His revelation comes at a time some schools across the country, are finding it almost impossible to feed students after government failed on many occasions, to dispatch food supplies to school citing challenges.

But almost immediately that same day the interview was aired, again the Education Ministry Public Relations Officer (PRO) came out rubbishing the D-G’s claim saying no such plan is underway.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, Kwasi Kwarteng said, “so far as the Ministry of Education is concerned and our agencies are also concerned, discussions of review… have not come to the table of the Ministry or the Minister”, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Ministry Kwasi Kwarteng told Accra-based Citi News.

He however noted that the Ministry is on standby for any review of the policy, if such discussions come up.

“If there comes a time when… that conversation comes up, why not? The ministry will be open to that.”

According to Mr. Kwarteng, a decision on the review of the policy will go beyond the Ministry.

“It goes beyond the agency. It goes beyond the ministry. It is an entire Ghanaian thing,”

He further maintained that Free SHS was not under financial difficulties, though there are challenges.

“I have always insisted that a lot of these challenges even predated Free SHS,” Mr. Kwarteng said.

He cited challenges with feeding and infrastructure as an example.

“The only components that we are having now, that has erupted this conversation, have to do with the fact that the government is paying for the fees of students.”

The Free SHS policy is currently under scrutiny because of supply challenges with food items.

But in his sudden U-turn statement, he explained that government is not reviewing the Free SHS policy because, any decision to review the policy will emanate from the President.

According to him, “The GES is a government agency and does not formulate or initiate review of policies.”

Prof. Opoku-Amankwa stressed that: “His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, in his recent speech at UHAS, assured all students, potential students, parents and the entire country that the Free SHS will not be affected by the IMF programme.”

He, therefore, expressed the resolve of the GES to implement the vision of President Akufo-Addo.

“It is the commitment of GES under my leadership to ensure that the vision of His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo of providing accessible, equitable and quality Free SHS education is fully implemented to the benefit of the good people of Ghana,” he stated.

Source: Anchorghana