Education Minister refutes $1.2m GALOP training scandal

The Minister for Education, Honourable Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has debunked claims levelled against his outfit over a Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcome Project (GALOP) teachers training scandal estimated to be $1.2 million.

Adutwum’s comment comes after Dr Clement Apaak, the Deputy Ranking Member on the Education Committee said his outfit will investigate the alleged $1.2 million the Ministry of Education (MoE) received from the World Bank.

The Education Committee Member in a discussion with JoyNews said the $1.2 million GALOP training could cause the country to be blacklisted by the World Bank should the Sector Minister fail to provide clarity on the allegations.

“The story broke yesterday so as a member of the Education Committee, we are trying to digest it but my initial position is that the Committee should be summoning the Minister else it will have serious implications,” Apaak said.

But, Mr Yaw Osei Adutwum addressing the media on the issue later Thursday said that media reports that no such training for over 40,000 teachers of the Ghana Education Service (GES) never took place are false and misleading.

He said the Ministry of Education has undertaken digital literacy training for over 41,000 teachers in the country. “A platform was created for teachers and on that platform, teachers went there and did the training,” Yaw told journalists.

The Bosomtwe lawmaker said some Ghana Education Service (GES) teachers who were called in for a certain TV show yesterday can attest to the fact that they were trained on a platform. He said 148,000 teachers have been trained so far.

“NTC platform has also trained 43,000 teachers. Ask my colleague teachers across the country and they will tell you they are on a platform and learning digital literacy,” the Minister in charge of Education said at the press briefing.

The Teaching Minister stressed that he came to the country and accepted to be Education Minister to help project President Nana Akufo-Addo and ensure that his vision for the transformation of education is accomplished.