The Ministry of Education (MoE) has debunked claims suggesting that the kingpin in Fourth Estate’s investigative piece “School Placement for Sale” is a staff.
The documentary, which uncovered widespread fraud in the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSPSS) had a woman by the name Rachel who was acting as an intermediary to alleged ‘big men’ at the Education Ministry.
Mr. Kwasi Kwarteng, who is the spokesperson of the Education Ministry, made known that it is untrue that Rachel is a staff, but rather used to work at the Ministry’s canteen.
“The understanding that I have from Manasseh’s video is that she was a former worker with the Ministry where she used to work with the Ministry’s canteen, she was not even working for the Ministry per se, but a private individual working in the Ministry’s canteen.”
Mr Kwarteng
Speaking on the eight individuals who were arrested for acting as intermediaries for the Ministry, Mr Kwarteng opined that anybody could have acted as a staff in his ministry to extort monies from parents.
“The Ministry of Education had rented a private facility at the GNAT hostel which operated as a resolution centre where we were serving the general public.
“It was possible that everybody could get in, establish the case, advance the reasons why there has to be changes for his or her ward. Within this process it’s possible there could be compromise.”
Mr Kwarteng
The spokesperson continued by saying, “Somebody can also take your money and make a very strong case without even any officer taking money, but of course the exploitation continues.”
Expression of Satisfaction
Mr Kwasi Kwarteng expressed his joy in the fact that the faces of these individuals were clear and believes the culprits will be able to expose the bad nuts at the Ministry.
The spokesperson did not deny that there may be staff of the Ministry involved in the fraudulent act, but vehemently rejected the allegation that the heads of Education Ministry and Director General of the GES were involved.
The Minister of Education and Ghana Education Service are the only individuals with the passwords that give them access to place students in Grade A schools. As such, after the investigation, many queried how the intermediaries were able to add names to the list of these schools.
However, Kwarteng explained that 90% of placement was done through the automatic placement.
The remainder, he revealed, is then divided equally by the school and the Education Service, adding that heads of various school can accept students to their institution then send a message to the Service for approval.
Meanwhile, 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).
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.
“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.”
Dr. Apaak
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.
