The Education Committee of Parliament is set to drag Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Education Minister, before it on February 11, 2023, to answer questions relating to alleged corrupt activities in the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS).
The Computerized School Selection and Placement System has come under scrutiny following allegations that some persons receive money in order to change schools for wards of some parents.
Speaking in an interview the Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Education Committee, Dr. Clement Apaak revealed that the Committee will seek to hear from the Education Minister on measures he is instituting to prevent future occurrences of such alleged corrupt activities during school placement.
The Education Ministry, commissioned a committee to investigate the allegations and Dr. Apaak divulged that Parliament would want the entire country to know the progress of the investigations.
“Our goal is to get to hear what the outcome of that committee’s work has been and what recommendation has been made, and we want to seek from the Minister how we can ensure that this does not reoccur given that there are going to be placements next week.
“Essentially, our goal is to ensure that students who qualify on the basis of merit to be placed in grade-A schools are not short-changed because somebody is profiting for having access to the system.”
Dr. Apaak
It will be recalled that Dr Apaak earlier this week, indicated that the education committee of parliament was not aware of the investigation being conducted by the education Ministry.
“The committee wants to invite the minister to find out why the investigations were done and at least the committee on education was never given any hint or inclination that an investigation on this matter was being conducted.
“Where is the report of the investigation? What are the recommendations? And who is being held accountable and how can we ensure no one is going to manipulate the system.”
Dr. Apaak
A documentary by The Fourth Estate dubbed ‘Placement for Sale’ has revealed how parents to pay money to some middlemen for their children to be placed in their preferred secondary school. Per reports, some culprits have been arrested by the Ghana Police Service.
8 Persons Arrested
Meanwhile, Eight persons have been arrested by the Police following JoyNews and Fourth Estate’s latest investigative piece, “School Placement for Sale” which uncovered widespread fraud in the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSPSS).
According to editor-in-chief at Fourth Estate, Mr. Manasseh Azure, the suspects have been charged and arraigned. He, however, stated that two others are at large.
According to Mr. Azure Awuni, “police have taken whatever evidence that they need from us and we hope that as time goes on they may be able to reach out beyond these eight and get to whoever served as the link between the intermediaries and also the Ghana Education Service, Director General and the Ministry of Education because only the two people could have agreed to any placement made into a category A school.”
In their latest investigation, The Fourth Estate’s Adwoa Adobea-Owusu and Evans Aziamor-Mensah reveal that protocol placements into category A schools were sold in 2022 even though approval for such placements was limited to only the Minister of Education and Director-General of the Ghana Education Service.
The documentary revealed that 10% of slots are usually reserved for protocol placements. It further disclosed that some parents paid up to 20,000 cedis to get their children enrolled in top-tier senior high schools.
In some cases, people pay as much as 10,000 cedis to maintain a slot, according to the investigative documentary.
Some have argued that the practice has been in the system for a very long period of time, only that it is just now being revealed because the payments are becoming outrageous.
Meanwhile, the immediate past Director-General of the GES, Professor Kwasi Opoku Amankwah names those who should be held responsible for fraud in the system. “If there is fraud in the matter, then myself as Director General and Minister should take responsibility. I fully accept that and I fully agree,” he said.
READ ALSO: Debt Exchange Program: Now Is the Best Time to Invest in the Ghana Stock Exchange- Prof Kwasi Peprah
