Deputy Minister of Education, Rev John Ntim Fordjuor has denied claims by the President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) Angel Carbonou to the effect that the government through Ministry of Education is recruiting headmasters for schools.
He said no such decision or action has been taken by the Ministry.
The NAGRAT President while making the claim said the Ministry had no such power to appoint headmasters for the various schools.
It is the duty of the Ghana Education Service (GES) to make such appointments and not the Ministry, he indicated.
Speaking at press conference in Accra on Thursday February 17, he said “There are a lot of issues in the educational sector that must be addressed but we are all pretending as though there are no issues.
“One of the them is the decision by the Ministry of Education to appoint headmasters and headmistresses and they are starting with STEM schools but he Ministry has no power to appoint headmasters or headmistress.”
He added “It is the function of the Ghana Education Service (GES), the GES has that power to appoint headmasters and headmistresses, not the Ministry of Education.”
He further called on the Ministry of Education to withdraw the advertisement inviting applicants to apply for the position of headmaster or headmistress.
“So the advertisement brought by the Ministry inviting applicants to apply to be headmasters and headmistress in STEM schools should be withdrawer by the Ministry immediately,” Mr Carbonou said.
In in rebuttal, Dr Ntim Fordjuor said in a statement on Sunday February 20 that “The Ministry of Education as a matter of record, has not advertised for recruitment of Headmasters for STEM Schools nor any other school for that matter.
“Appointment of heads of schools are the prerogative of GES and for the record, it is the understanding of the Ministry of Education that GES had not published any such advert as purported by NAGRAT in their press conference.
“The appointment of Heads of Schools for the soon to be operationalized STEM schools shall be in line with the prescribed procedure and must therefore not become the subject of unwarranted media attacks by NAGRAT. The Ministry of Education is open to NAGRAT and all relevant stakeholders on all matters relating to education.”
He added “In this particular instance, NAGRAT acting in good faith, could have simply verified any such speculation of alleged ‘recruitment of Heads of Schools’ from the Ministry before engaging in media attacks on the basis of unfounded speculation.
“While I urge the public to disregard those allegations of insult, I wish to state that I’ll not be drawn to engage Carbonu nor NAGRAT in war of words nor media banters over a simple matter but the record ought to be set straight.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana