Education Minister to face parliament over School Placement for sale fraud

Parliament has summoned Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum to answer questions on the School Placement for sale investigative report published by The Fourth Estate in regard to allegations of fraud in the Senior High School (SHS) posting

Slated for February 2, 2023, the crunch meeting will see the Education Minister explain how some individuals had access to the school placement system to modify the postings of students who sat for the 31st edition of BECE in 2021.

Speaking to the Fourth Estate on the school placement fraud documentary, Peter Nortsu Kortoe ranking member on the Parliament Education Committee said his outfit has invited Dr Adutwum to brief the committee on the issue.

“When the release of the video came out, we also watched and we have been speaking with people, so the chairman and I decided that we should invite the minister to the committee to brief us on the development,” Mr Nortsu said.

The Education Committee of Parliament, Peter Kortoe told The Estate would want “to find out what measures the Minister in charge of Education is putting in place to forestall such occurrences in the coming school placement.”

Meanwhile, the Minister for Education who doubles as Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe Constituency, Dr Adutwum has said this year computerised school placement of 2022 BECE students will be a free and fair process.

Speaking in an interview monitored by AcademicWeek, Mr Adutwum said his outfit in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service, CSSPS and Free SHS Secretariat has put in place adequate measures for a smooth placement.

“We will work with the security agencies to ensure this year’s computer school placement is flawless and that nobody, nobody will be able to take advantage of the Free Senior High School (Free SHS),” the Minister for Education said.

His assurance comes after an investigation by the Fourth Estate indicated last year’s second-cycle school computer placement was monetized by some individuals who claim to be officials from the Ministry of Education (MoE).

According to the Estate’s report, computer placement into Category A or what could best be described as Top Senior High Schools (SHSs) in the country was sold from GH₵10,000 up to GH₵ 7,000 by the self-acclaimed MoE officials.

In one instance, one of the self-acclaimed staff of the Education Ministry (MoE) demanded and took GH¢ 8,500 to change a 2021 computer school placement from Accra Wesley Girls to Aggrey Memorial Zion School.

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An amount of GH¢ 11,000 was similarly charged to change a school placement from Aburi Presbyterian Senior High School to Mfantsiman Girls Senior High School by this same unscrupulous SHS posting fraudsters.

READ: School placement For Sale: Systems breach and human interference must stop

The police have so far arrested eight persons in relation to The Fourth Estate documentary, but none of them is a staff of the Ministry of Education or the Ghana Education Service as they claimed in the viral video on social media.