Education Minister Reacts To Allegations Of Possible Underhand Dealings Of $1.2M World Bank cash

The Minister of Education, Dr. Osei Yaw Adutwum, has clarified allegations of possible underhand dealings in a $1.2 million training program for public school teachers sponsored by the World Bank.

The Minister says the money has not been squandered as claimed my some media reports clarifying that the said amount in contention was not even meant for the training of teachers as suggested.

“The good news is that the money is sitting in the [Ministry’s] account as we speak”, the Minister said at a press briefing in Accra today, Thursday May 26, 2022.

Claims against the Minister referenced a supposed training of over 40,000 teachers on the digital literacy platform under the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP).

The reports also suggested that the Education Ministry and the Ghana Education Service have solicited for a $1.2 million support from the World Bank but the said training was not organized upon release of the funds from the international financial institution.

But the sector Minister insists the facts of the matter have wrongly been interpreted.

“The money was not meant for any training. The training was to be supported by us and once we can show that we have a skin in the game that we are committed to the transformation of education under GALOP, then they will release the money and that is what they have done. There is nothing wrong here because the World Bank has approved our funding”, he emphasized.

Dr. Osei Yaw Adutwum was particularly worried about attempts to tarnish his reputation despite his commitment to assist government to give Ghana’s education sector a facelift.

He however assured that these allegations will not deter him from undertaking policies that will be in the best interest of the country.

“So nothing can be far away from the truth that, I will superintend over 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 added.

 

 

In a separate statement though, the Ministry clarified the issues as follows:

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 (Gob), 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 30,21. 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 for 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 engagement 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 ..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 I, Technologies and NTC developed platforms. K.A Technologies platforms has 148,510 signed up uses. 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 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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: MyGhanaMedia.com