'You left a despondent educational system' – Haruna Iddrisu hits back at Adutwum

The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has questioned why he should seek advice from his predecessor, Yaw Osei Adutwum, on resolving challenges in the education sector.

Speaking on TV3, monitored by GhanaWeb on Friday, September 11, 2026, Haruna Iddrisu wondered what useful advice Dr Adutwum could offer, given the challenges the previous government left behind.

According to Haruna Iddrisu, the current government inherited a “despondent” education system characterised by infrastructure challenges, feeding difficulties and other problems.

“When he says come to me for advice, what advice? Advice that you left a despondent educational system is what President Mahama inherited,” he said.

The Education Minister further argued that the previous administration struggled to adequately provide food for students under the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) programme.

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According to him, there were several instances during the previous administration when schools had to close because of shortages of food.

“You left an educational system in crisis with its infrastructure, an educational system that could not feed students in the government’s most popular flagship of Free SHS and under his supervision, there were many times schools were closed down because of shortage of food,” he said.

Haruna Iddrisu maintained that such incidents had not occurred under his tenure as Education Minister.

He attributed the improvement in the feeding of students to President John Dramani Mahama’s decision to uncap the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) and dedicate funding towards feeding students.

“Students are being well fed. Thanks to President Mahama’s uncapping the GETFund and dedicating financing to feed them. So, there has been an improvement,” he added.

Haruna Iddrisu also rejected the suggestion that he would seek Dr Adutwum’s advice on how to end the double-track system in senior high schools.

He questioned why he should consult the former minister on an issue he believes was created under his supervision.

“Am I going to go to Minister Adutwum to seek for advice to end double track? When he invented double track and knows the consequences of double track on the quality of education? I should go for advice on that? Interesting times,” he said.

The minister also indicated that the current administration inherited challenges with the placement exercise and acknowledged comments by the former minister suggesting that he had better solutions.

However, he questioned why the country was still dealing with the challenges if the previous administration had already found the solutions.

“For the placement exercise, we inherited it anyway. I have heard comments from the former minister who seems to have better solutions outside government. If he fixed the challenges, why are we here?” he questioned.

Haruna Iddrisu said the country must first acknowledge that there are challenges with the placement exercise within the education sector and focus on addressing them.

His comments come after Dr Adutwum said he was available to share his ideas and experience with Haruna Iddrisu if he needed his assistance in running the sector.

JKB/BAI

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