Appointment of new GES boss: Proper processes and procedure was not followed – Apaak

Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Education Committee, Dr Clement Apaak, has stated that the government failed to adhere to due process in appointing Dr Eric Nkansah as the new Director General of the Ghana Education Service.

According to Mr Apaak, the government, among other things, failed to engage in proper consultations, including factoring in the input of the GES Council before the appointment.

“The Council has a say even if the president has the power to appoint, and that is why the process requires that before the minister makes a recommendation to the president, that should have happened before the recommendation. And that is where the problem is; when we try to circumvent and ignore laid-down processes and procedures, this is what happens.

“I believe that if the processes had been followed, a sense would have come that this appointment that the president was intending to make would not receive popular support from major stakeholders or if they had that sense, they would have done some background work to try and prepare the grounds,” he said during an interview with Okay FM monitored by GhanaWeb.

His comment is on the back of the strike action declared by pre-tertiary teacher unions following the appointment of Dr Eric Nkansah by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT), in a collective decision, announced the strike action last week.

At a press conference last week, the unions rejected the appointment of Dr Eric Nkansah, who has a banking background, as the new GES boss.

Addressing a press conference in Accra on Thursday, October 20, the president of NAGRAT, Mr Angel Carbonou, said teachers were hoping that a person with a background in education would be appointed to bring his or her expertise to bear.

“What annoyed and surprised all of us was that a new Director General has been appointed to the Ghana Education Service.

“The authority to appoint Director General of GES is the president of the land. Unfortunately, contrary to what the teacher unions indicated that we would want a Director General who is a professional teacher who has passed through the mill, who can bring his knowledge, skills and influence to bear on the activities of teachers and non-teachers in the GES.

“Contrary to that, the gentleman who was appointed yesterday is not a teacher; he is a banking officer who was a special assistant in the office of the minister and has been appointed as the DG of the GES. We are not happy with this development; it is as if we don’t have professionals and well-educated people who have gone through the mill in education in this country to run education,” he stated.

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