Deputy Education Minister, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, has debunked claims purportedly made by the President of National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Angel Carbonu, that the Ministry of Education has advertised for recruitment of Headmasters for STEM Schools.

Contained in a statement, Rev Fordjour described the publication attributed to NAGRAT and purported to have been alleged by Mr Carbonu as“unprovoked and unwarranted” attacks on the ministry. He revealed that he has never on any occasion “insulted” Mr Carbonu as captured in the allegations raised by the NAGRAT President against him and the Ministry of Education. He explained that the assertions as published by “Citinewsroom and other portals are false and misleading”.

His statements follow allegations made by Angel Carbonu, that he had to boycott a meeting with the Minister of Education because of the “insult of the deputy minister”. Mr Carbonu explained that one of NAGRAT’s recent concerns has also been the role of the Ministry of Education in selecting headmasters and headmistresses for the government’s new STEM schools.

“The Ministry of Education as a matter of record, has not advertised for recruitment of Headmasters for STEM Schools nor any other school for that matter. Appointment of heads of schools are the prerogative of GES and for the record, it is the understanding of the Ministry of Education that GES had not published any such advert as purported by NAGRAT in their press conference”.
Rev. John Ntim Fordjour

Controversies surrounding STEM education

Rev Fordjour explained that the appointment of Heads of Schools for the soon to be operationalized STEM schools shall be in line with the prescribed procedure and must therefore not become the subject of unwarranted media attacks by NAGRAT. While urging the public to disregard those allegations of insult, Rev Fordjour indicated that he will not be drawn to engage Carbonu nor NAGRAT in “war of words nor media banters over a simple matter but the record ought to be set straight”.

“The Ministry of Education is open to NAGRAT and all relevant stakeholders on all matters relating to education. In this particular instance, NAGRAT acting in good faith, could have simply verified any such speculation of alleged ‘recruitment of Heads of Schools’ from the Ministry before engaging in media attacks on the basis of unfounded speculation”.
Rev. John Ntim Fordjour

Prior to this, Mr Carbonu had called on the Ministry of Education to withdraw the advertisement inviting applicants to apply for the position of headmaster or headmistress at these schools. NAGRAT believes the teachers for these schools should be recruited from within the public school’s teacher pool so as not to break the chain of seniority and procedure.

“They [the STEM schools] are not private schools; these are government schools. The teachers employed in these schools are our members and why I say this, I am being talked about as singing from the NDC hymn book. We have even advocated as unions that the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service should establish some leadership training institution for the workers of the Ghana Education service… if they feel we are deficient in the administration and management of schools”.
Angel Carbonu