Mr. Kwasi Kwarteng, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, has disclosed that the internal investigation into accusations of corruption concerning the computerized school selection and placement system has been finalized.
According to him, the report is ready and “all consequential decisions within the report will be communicated.”
This comes on the back of a JoyNews-Fourth Estate documentary, ‘School Placement for Sale’, where it was revealed that some agents have been receiving bribes from parents to place their wards into Category A schools.
The documentary revealed that an earlier report concerning the evil deed had been made to the Police CID for investigation by the outgone Director General of the Ghana Education Service, Professor Kwasi Opoku Amankwah and investigations had been initiated. However, the Police investigations were cut short for an internal investigation led by the Ministry of Education to carry on.
Speaking in an interview, Mr. Kwasi Kwarteng made known that, the Committee set up by the Minister of Education to carry out the investigation have already submitted their recommendations to the Minister.
“There were some recommendations from the committee and of course, some of the recommendations bother internal decisions that even the Minister for Education himself must take. There were other decisions that we also had to rely on institutions like National Security, the Police and what have you.
“GES also had their role to play. But the point is that the report is ready; the Minister of Education has the report and all consequential decisions within the report will be communicated.”
Mr Kwarteng
The Spokesperson iterated that, the only reason the report has delayed is because the Ministry had to await for information from other institutions like the Police and the Ministry of National Security in order to draw conclusions and recommendations.
Mr. Kwasi Kwarteng guaranteed stakeholders of the Ministry’s determination to continuously work with them to ensure that the guiding principle of transparency and equity of the CSSPS is restored.
We Need To know If investigation On CSSPS Was Concluded
Meanwhile, Dr. Peter Anti, Director for Institute of Education studies, has called for the publication of the conclusion of the internal investigation conducted by the Ministry of Education concerning issues of corruption related to the computerized school selection and placement system (CSSPS).
The Director opined that, the best way to get to the bottom of the issue is for that document (report) to be published and made public, as a sign of transparency and accountability on the part of the Ministry.
“What was the content of that particular document that was produced? That is the only way we will be able to ascertain that the desire to get to the bottom of the complaints that were raised by the DG then were the same reason that necessitated the investigations that was called for by the Minister for National Security.”
Dr Anti
Dr Anti disclosed that, the major issue bedevilling the CSSPS was the lack of transparency that has come to characterize the placement system, giving way to corrupt people taking advantage of parents and guardians seeking senior high school education for their wards after their BECE results are out.
“If you want to fix this system, we need to get to the bottom of this. Of course, because one of the prominent objectives of this policy was to ensure transparency, fairness in the allocation of our applicants to senior high schools on the basis of merit.
“So if at the end of the day, the system itself is being corrupted and people are abusing the system, and if you read all research works that have been done on the placement system, they mention the challenge of corruption, human interference and all those things;they mention it.”
Dr Anti
The Director of Institute for Education studies at a greater extent divulged that, the Fourth Estate documentary, ‘School Placement for Sale’ has come to provide tangible evidence of a problem which was once merely rumour. “So as at now, we are fortunate to have something to hold on to and I believe that by the call from the Ministry of National Security, we should get to the bottom of this”, he emphasized.
Dr. Anti, however, stated that “nobody at the Ministry of Education was mentioned or was caught, nobody at the Ghana Education Service was mentioned or was caught, and nobody at the Free Senior High School secretariat was mentioned or caught,” in the documentary.
“So are we saying that these things are carried out by people external to these three agencies? I don’t believe that is the situation. So there is certainly people internally who are colluding with other people to perpetuate this kind of fraud on the innocent parents and students who would want to access a secondary education in Ghana.
“And to do that and get the needed response and fix the system as we are calling for, we need to get that report published and we need to get to the bottom of this and know who and who are behind those who are doing this kind of corrupt activities, especially those within the Ministry and those within the Ghana Education Service.”
Dr Anti
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