MoE to partner The Fourth Estate to end SHS placement fraud

Minister in charge of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum following an expose on school placement says his outfit this year will collaborate with investigators of the expose, The Fourth Estate to curb computer school placement fraud.

In a discussion monitored by AcademicWeek, Honourable Yaw Osei Adutwum said “I will work with the various security agencies and work with The Fourth Estate to make sure this does not happen under me as Minister for Education.”

The Education Minister furthered that “Free Senior High School is not for sale so if anybody thinks they can manipulate the system and do something untoward it has to be stopped, that is why I am grateful to the Fourth Estate.”

Asked if the school placement protocol will be abolished amid the fraud in school postings, the Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe, Adutwum replied no saying the Ministry of Education came to meet the placement protocol tradition.

In a related development, Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Education Committee, Clement Apaak reacting to the school placement fraud claim has asked the Education Ministry to phase out the computerised placement protocol.

In an interview monitored by AcademicWeek, the Builsa South Constituency Member of Parliament said the outcome of the ‘Placement for Sale’ exposé defies the reasons for which the computer school placement was instituted.

“The artificial system of placing students in Senior High Schools after their completion of Junior High Schools, was to take away the human element, to take away bias and to show fairness and equity,” Dr Clement Apaak told JoyNews.

Describing the computerised school selection and placement system (CSSPS) as nonsense, he said the office of the special prosecutor or the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) should take up the issue.

The Education Committee member’s comment comes after an investigation by the Fourth Estate indicated last year’s second-cycle school placement was monetized by some individuals who claim to be officials from the Ministry of Education.

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.

Currently, the police have arrested eight suspects in connection with the school placement fraud uncovered by The Fourth Estate. None of them the Estate says are from the Education Ministry, GES or the Free SHS Secretariat.