Executive Director for Institute of Education studies, Dr. Peter Anti, has called for the publication of the conclusion of the internal investigation conducted by the Ministry of Education concerning issues of corruption related to the computerized school selection and placement system (CSSPS).
According to him, the only way to get to the bottom of the issues is for that document to be published and made public as a sign of transparency and accountability on the part of the Ministry.
“What was the content of that particular document that was produced? That is the only way we’ll be able to ascertain that the desire to get to the bottom of the complaints that were raised by the DG then were the same reason that necessitated the investigations that was called for by the Minister for National Security,” he said on JoyNews’ PM Express.
He noted that the major issue bedeviling the CSSPS was the lack of transparency that has come to characterize the placement system, giving way to corrupt people taking advantage of parents and guardians seeking senior high school education for their wards.
“If you want to fix this system, we need to get to the bottom of this. Of course, because one of the prominent objectives of this policy was to ensure transparency, fairness in the allocation of our applicants to senior high schools on the basis of merit.
“So if at the end of the day, the system itself is being corrupted and people are abusing the system, and if you read all research works that have been done on the placement system, they mention the challenge of corruption, human interference and all those things, they mention it.”
He added that the JoyNews-Fourth Estate documentary, ‘School Placement for Sale’ has come to provide tangible evidence of a problem which was once merely hearsay.
“So as at now, we are fortunate to have something to hold on to and I believe that by the call from the Ministry of National Security, we should get to the bottom of this,” he said.
Dr. Anti, however, noted that “nobody at the Ministry of Education was mentioned or was caught, nobody at the Ghana Education Service was mentioned or was caught, and nobody at the Free Senior High School secretariat was mentioned or caught,” in the documentary.
“So are we saying that these things are carried out by people external to these three agencies? I don’t believe that is the situation. So there is certainly people internally who are colluding with other people to perpetuate this kind of fraud on the innocent parents and students who would want to access a secondary education in Ghana.
“And to do that and get the needed response and fix the system as we are calling for we need to get that report published and we need to get to the bottom of this and know who and who are behind those who are doing this kind of corrupt activities especially those within the Ministry and those within the Ghana Education Service,” he said
