A well-known bitter feud between Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh and his former deputy at the Education Ministry, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, now the substantive minister, has saved the country a whooping US$1.2 million World Bank money, which would been diverted into something the country would not have been able to account for.
The colossal amount was almost diverted into an alleged phantom training scheme of teachers, costing $1.2 million, but for the Ghana Education Service (GES), the Director-General of the GES, Prof Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, saying he was unaware of the training of over 40,000 teachers on the digital literacy platform under the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP).
The quarrel, which is known to many New Patriotic Party (NPP) insiders, as well as top elements of the government, has become a significant blessing to the country. Many are asking what would have happened to the cash, if the two had been in the best of relationship.
At a hurriedly organized press conference yesterday to clear the air, Dr Adutwum, denied claims that he squandered some $1.2 million of World Bank funds meant for a training programme for public school teachers.
“The good news is that the money is sitting in the account as we speak”, Dr Adutwum told journalists on Thursday evening at a press conference, adding “the money was not meant for any training”, he told the press.
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“I didn’t come to this country to do that, I came to help and ensure that the President’s mission for the transformation of education in the country is accomplished. You work so hard and others who don’t care will do anything to dent your image”, Dr Adutwum bemoaned.
But a write up in circulation purported to be coming from Matthew Opoku Prempeh, who is currently the Minister for Energy shouted back “under my watch as Education Minister, the Ghana Education Service (GES) did not undertake the Teacher training component of GALOP to warrant our claim for the said $1.2m from World Bank”, insisting he designed the programme.
Accra-based Joy FM’s Kwesi Parker-Wilson reports that, the World Bank, as part of its investigations to establish the training of the teachers as claimed by the Education Ministry, officially wrote to the Director-General of GES to confirm the said training, however, a letter signed by Prof Opoku-Amankwa, observed that he is “unaware that any such training has taken place.”
The letter dated March 30, 2022, also added that “GES is unaware of reports and correspondence between the Education Ministry and the World Bank, and is unable to make an informed response to the Bank’s request,” and asked the Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, “to advice and provide direction to enable the GES to respond appropriately to the enquiries from the World Bank.”
This lends credence to revelations that the Education Minister, at the blindside of GES, sanctioned the training and wrote to the World Bank on November 30, requesting the release of $1.2 million amid lying it had successfully trained over 40,000 teachers under GALOP.
The Education Ministry, had claimed that the teachers were offered the training in three modules namely; recorded online training, physical training and online/virtual live training.
The letter signed by the Chief Director at the Education Ministry, Benjamin Gyasi, and submitted to the World Bank, concluded that it even “exceeded the target of 40,000 teachers to be trained, insisting PBC7.2B has been achieved.”
But sources at the World Bank, according to Joy FM, said the claim by the Ministry was misleading.
The World Bank, upon receipt of the documents, asked the Education Ministry in an email correspondence on January 7, 2022, to provide clarity to some of the information on the achievements in the training of the teachers.
The clarity, included asking the “MoE to explain the difference in the course content, arguing the course does not seem to be the same as the training of the content set out in GALOP.”
In a series of queries, the Bank also asked the “MoE to share the slides for the training courses, as well as examples of the self-assessments teachers were expected to do, so we have an understanding of the actual content.”
“Does MoE have any qualitative feedback from teachers who did the training that can give us a better understanding of whether they feel their distance learning skills have improved? If so, can they be shared?” the Bank quizzed.
It also called on the Education Ministry to “clarify whether the portal is linked (or if there is a plan to link) to student performance to demonstrate impact/result of the teacher digital literacy portal at classroom level and to facilitate targeted adaptation of teaching for improved learning outcomes.”
Although, the World Bank, asked the Education Minister to respond to the queries latest by close of January 14, 2022, he is said to have remained silent on the queries for over four months.
The loud silence of the Education Ministry, forced the World Bank to write to the Director-General of the GES, seeking clarification of the claims by the Ministry that over 40,000 teachers, have been trained.
The Deputy Ranking Member on the Education Committee, Dr Clement Apaak, has meanwhile waded into the matter pushing for a Parliamentary probe into allegations that the Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, supervised the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcome Project at an estimated cost of $1.2 million for some 40,000 teachers.
Dr Apaak, argued that the country risked being blacklisted by the World Bank, should the Minister fail to provide clarity on the allegations.
“If we don’t hold this well and get to the bottom of it, we will be blacklisted because we know these institutions. When they give you money there are some guidelines, protocols and procedures and if you don’t meet them, your nation could suffer,” he told JoyNews’ Kwesi Parker-Wilson.
He insisted that the Education Committee would summon the Sector Minister and ascertain why the implementing agency which is GES was sidestepped in the training of the said teachers.
“Like it or not, we speak of Ghana Beyond Aid but we are still being supported by and large by donor countries and institutions. Given the quantum of the amount involved, $1.2 million, you can imagine the kind of impact this would make and the penalty we could suffer as a nation if we do not get to the bottom of this issue.
“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 implication,” he said.
Meanwhile, a write up in circulation purported to be coming from Matthew Opoku Prempeh, who is currently the Minister for Energy, has explained that “Under my watch as Education Minister, the Ghana Education Service (GES) did not undertake the Teacher training component of GALOP to warrant our claim for the said $1.2m from World Bank”.
It stated that “The Digital Teacher Training under the KATechnology Teacher Laptop Programme must not under any circumstances be confused with the GALOP Teacher Digital Literacy training programme under National Teachers Council. KAT digital training isn’t a substitute for GALOP training. These are two different training programs.
The write up dated May 26, 2022, stated that “as immediate past Minister for Education, I believe it is important to clarify a number of issues pertaining to the story doing the media rounds regarding a World Bank project on teacher training”…..adding “as Education Minister I negotiated both programs and know that they are not the same”.
But before the sun will settle on the matter, Dr Adutwum, yesterday held a press conference and denied claims that he squandered some $1.2 million of World Bank funds meant for a training programme for public school teachers.
“The training was to be supported by us and once we can show that we have a skin in the game and that we are committed to the transformation of education under GALOP, then they will release the money and that is what they have done”, he explained.
He added: “There is nothing wrong here, because the World Bank has approved our funding”.
“So, nothing can be far away from the truth that I will superintend a project that is not going to benefit Ghanaians, it will never be true, I will never do that.”
“I didn’t come to this country to do that, I came to help and ensure that the President’s mission for the transformation of education in the country is accomplished. You work so hard and others who don’t care will do anything to dent your image”, he bemoaned.
In addition to Dr Adutwum’s explanation, the Ministry Of Education, has issued a press statement to set the records straight:
BACKGROUND
i. Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP) uses Results-Based Financing (RBF) instrument where project funds are disbursed contingent on the achievement of pre-agreed results and independent verification of results.
ii. In 2020, the Ministry secured additional SISm as COVID-19 Global Partnerships for Education Accelerated Funding to better respond to disruptions to education due to COVID-19.
iii. Under this component, one Performance-Based Condition (PBC) against which disbursement is tied is Teachers Trained in Digital Literacy. The MoE was expected to train 40,080 teachers. Digital Literacy to trigger disbursement of S1.2 million.
ACTION TAKEN
iv. In collaboration with Ghana Education Service (GES), KA Technologies had been engaged to supply laptops to, and train teachers in digital literacy. To ensure efficiency in the utilization of sector resources, the Ministry leveraged the teacher training platform developed by KA Technologies and National Teaching Council (NTC) platform ( for the provision of digital literacy training.
v. Based on evidence from the Kanton platform, a total of 41,860 Teachers had registered as participating in digital literacy training on the KA Technologies platform as of November 30, 2021. Out of this total, 40,042 had been through at least a course on digital literacy. Similarly, teachers had accessed the NTC platform and were participating in the training.
INDEPENDENT VERIFICATION
vi. Independent Verification of the Ministry’s Report on achievement was done by the Education Sector Development Partners as the requirement of the project.
vii. The Development Partners’ Group was taken through a presentation on the teacher training platforms, courses mounted, teachers registered and the courses taken. Furthermore, the Partners’ were given access to their independent engagement with the platform.
viii. Issues raised by the Development Partners such as the adequacy of the content on the teachers’ training platforms were addressed in a series of engagements with the Development Partners Group.
ix. Following these engagements, the Education Sector Development Partners’ in a letter dated March 25, 2022, officially communicated their verification and confirmation of achievement of PBC 7.2B. Among others, the Group noted that documentation provided by the MoE to the Chair of the Development Partners Group shows that, as of November 30, 2021, a total of 41,860 Teachers from 685 schools across the country have registered on the platform and 40,042 have completed at least five digital literacy courses.
x. Consequently, the World Bank transferred $1.2m to the Ministry after their internal clearance of the PBC. The funds will be programmed for GALOP implementation activities in the next budget cycle as per project implementation arrangements.
xi. Beyond the submission of the report and verification, many more teachers have been trained on both the KA Technologies and NTC developed platforms. K.A Technologies platform has 148,510 signed up users. Similarly, 43,988 teachers had been trained on the NTC platform as of May 26, 2022.
MEDIA DISCUSSION
xii. The World Bank has not written to the Ghana Education Service (GES) or any other Agency of the Ministry to confirm the achievement of results. Evidence of teachers trained is available on the NIG teacher training platform and the KA Technologies Platform.
