Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Adutwum, has denied allegations that fraudulent payments for school placement was linked to his access to the system.
On February 9, 2023, the Fourth Estate published a report that said the Minister of Education was linked to a fraudulent payment for enrolling a student in a category “A” school in 2022.
In response to the allegations, Mr. Adutwum maintained that the Fourth Estate’s assertion that he is associated with criminality in relation to the school placement is based on claims made by Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, who is a former Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES).
In an interview on Peace FM with morning show host Kwame Sefa Kayi on Friday, February 17, he said: “It is Prof. Opoku-Amankwa, who is no longer a Director of the Ghana Education Service, who made such claims.”
“It is not Fourth Estate who said it. They only reported what he said, which has no truth.
“Prof. Opoku-Amankwa also had a password, why didn’t they say it is his password that was used,” he asked.
He explained that the protocol list they are talking about comes from headmasters, pastors, and past students who want their children to attend the same schools they attended.
“It will never happen that me as a champion of free senior high school will sit down for people to destroy it.
“The truth of the matter is that when it comes to protocol, we have protocol that comes from headmasters, we have some that come from pastors, old boy, old girls, who want help for their children to attend the same schools they attended.
“It is nice that someone will attend a certain school and also want the child to go to the same school.
“For me, i see that to be vote of confidence in the school. If the school is not good, the person would not want the child to also go there.
“So, if one of such people want their child to go to the school they want but due to some reasons the child was not placed there, what we do is that we give the person a chance to go there,” he said.
He also stated that since the implementation of free senior high school, children who attended public junior high schools have received approximately 30% of a quota to attend any category of senior high school.
“Since the introduction of senior high school, we have given 30% quota to children who attended public junior high schools to be placed in any school. Had it not been that policy, they would not get the chance to go to certain schools.”
