No plans to privatise education – Adutwum

The Education Ministry has dismissed claims that plans are underway by the government to privatise education at the basic level in the country.

Under the supposed Ghana Partnership Schools (GPS) Project, a total of 100 selected public schools in the Ashanti, Northern, Central and Greater Accra Regions would be handed over to private school operators to manage.

The Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) has however cautioned the government against the implementation of the Ghana Partnership Schools (GPS) Project.

Describing the project as subtle privatisation and commercialisation of the education system, the Coalition urged government through the education minister to suspend the implementation of the project for broader consultation.

Addressing a press conference in Accra Monday, the Chairman of GNECC, Kofi Asare warned that the coalition will vehemently oppose any attempt to commodify public education in the country.

He said: “GNECC after participating in the initial planning phase of this Ghana Partnership Schools project has observed that the GPS project for short seeks to hand over the management of low performing public schools to private firms and the ministry of education intends to reward these private firms based on the learning outcomes that they achieve in managing these schools.

“The Coalition views this as an attempt to commodify and privatise education using public funds and on this basis, we believe that the ministry of education must apply the breaks for further consultation and review their approach in implementing the project.”

But speaking to Starr News, Deputy Education Minister Dr. Yaw Adutwum said there are no plans to go private with government schools.

“I don’t know what the NGOs are talking about because there is nothing like that. There is no policy document on the issue they are talking about, so I don’t know what they are talking about. And their President is part of the board of advisers for the ministry and he couldn’t come to us to ask if there is anything like that. There is nothing like what they are saying,” he told Starr News Daniel Nii Lartey.