NAPO Clarifies Allegations On US$1.2 Million Costing Teachers Training Scandal
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Manhyia South Constituency of the Ashanti Region, who doubles as the former Minister of Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh aka 'Napo', has vehemently clarified allegations on media reports on an alleged phantom World Bank training scheme under the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP) of teachers costing US$1.2 million.
Freeman Koryekpor Awlesu Greater 
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Manhyia South Constituency of the Ashanti Region, who doubles as the former Minister of Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh aka 'Napo', has vehemently clarified allegations on media reports on an alleged phantom World Bank training scheme under the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP) of teachers costing US$1.2 million.
According to Dr. Prempeh, under his watch as Education Minister, the Ghana Education Service (GES) did not undertake the Teacher training component of GALOP to warrant "our claim for the said US$1.2 million from World Bank.
He explained that the Digital Teacher Training under the KATechnology Teacher Laptop Programme must not under any circumstances be confused with the GALOP Teacher Digital Literacy training program under National Teachers Council.
He mentioned that the KAT digital training isn’t a substitute for GALOP training, adding that these are two different training programs.
He stated that "As Education Minister I negotiated both programs and know that they are not the same, saying that "I trust that this clarifies the matter.
It would be recalled that there was a media report that Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, Minister of Education, has been cited in an alleged phantom World Bank training scheme of teachers costing $1.2 million.
The World Bank as part of its investigations to establish the training of the teachers as claimed by the Ministry of Education, wrote officially to the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, GES, to confirm when the said training took place.
But Director-General of GES, Prof Kwasi Opoku Amankwa, before he could respond to the World Bank letter, wrote to the Ministry asking for clarity on the training of over 40,000 teachers on the digital literacy platform under the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP).
Prof Opoku Amankwa in his letter to the ministry stated that he is “unaware that any such training has taken place.”
The letter also added, “GES is unaware of reports and correspondence between the Education Ministry and the World Bank and is unable to make an informed response to the Banks request.”
The GES boss further asked the sector Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum “to advice and provide direction to enable the GES to respond appropriately to the inquiries from the World Bank.”
The said letter dated March 30, 2022, was first published by Accra-based JoyNews.
The Education Ministry had written to the World Bank, on November 30, to sanction a teacher training program on the blind side of GES and requested the release of $1.2 million amid claims it has successfully trained over 40,000 teachers under GALOP.
The letter was signed by the Chief Director at the Education Ministry, Benjamin. K. Gyasi, on behalf of the Minister, said, the selected teachers were offered training in 3 modules which included Recorded online training, Physical Training, and Online/Virtual Live training.
In the conclusion, the Ministry told the World Bank that it has “exceeded the target of 40,000 teachers to be trained insisting PBC7.2B has been achieved.”
The World Bank upon receipt of the documents, asked the Education Ministry in email correspondence on January 7, 2022, to provide clarity to some of the information on the achievements in the training of the teachers
The World Bank further asked the “MoE to explain the difference in the course content arguing the course does not seem to be the same as the training of the content set out in GALOP”.
The Bank further asked the: “MoE to share the slides for the training courses, as well as examples of the self-assessments teachers, we're expected to do, so we have an understanding of the actual content?
“Does MoE have any qualitative feedback from teachers who did the training that can give us a better understanding of whether they feel their distance learning skills have improved? If so, can they be shared?” the World Bank quizzed.
The World Bank asked the Education Minister to respond to the queries latest by the close of day 14 January 2022, but the Minister remained silent on the queries for over 4 months.
This forced the World Bank to write to the Director-General of the GES, Prof Kwasi Opoku Amamkwa demanding clarification of the claims by the ministry that over 40,000 teachers have been trained under GALOP.
