Education Minister fingered in US$1.2 million training corruption scandal

Education Minister fingered in US$1.2 million training corruption scandal

In 2022, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Minister of Education, was implicated in an alleged World Bank training scheme for teachers, purportedly costing $1.2 million. The World Bank initiated investigations into the claimed teacher training and formally contacted Prof. Kwasi Opoku Amankwa, the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), seeking confirmation of the training timeline.

Before Prof. Opoku Amankwa could respond to the World Bank, he wrote to the Ministry of Education seeking clarity on the training of more than 40,000 teachers on the digital literacy platform under the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP). In his letter, Prof. Opoku Amankwa stated he was unaware of any such training and emphasized the GES’s lack of knowledge regarding reports and correspondence between the Education Ministry and the World Bank.

Prof. Opoku Amankwa urged the Education Minister to provide guidance for the GES to respond appropriately to the World Bank’s inquiries. The letter, dated March 30, 2022, was initially reported by JoyNews based in Accra.

On November 30, 2022, the Education Ministry had written to the World Bank, seeking approval for a teacher training program without GES’s knowledge and requesting the release of $1.2 million. The Ministry claimed to have successfully trained over 40,000 teachers under GALOP, offering training in three modules: Recorded online training, Physical Training, and Online/Virtual Live training. The Ministry asserted it had surpassed the target, achieving PBC7.2B.

Upon receiving the documents, the World Bank, in an email dated January 7, 2022, sought clarification from the Education Ministry. The World Bank questioned differences in course content, requested training course slides, examples of self-assessments, and inquired about qualitative feedback from teachers on improved distance learning skills. The World Bank set a deadline for the Education Minister to respond by January 14, 2022, but the Minister remained silent for over four months, prompting the World Bank to approach the GES Director-General for clarification on the Ministry’s claims of training over 40,000 teachers under GALOP.

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Corruption: Education Minister fingered in US$1.2 million training scandal pic.twitter.com/Q7QTFE1mom

— Ghana Crimes (@GhanaCrimes) November 24, 2023