Govt rejects corruption report on education

The government has rejected a global corruption report that ranks Ghana as the first country in the world where people pay bribes in the educational sector.

It questioned the research carried out by the international body that cited activities in other countries and then concluded that Ghana was like that.

A  Deputy Minister of Education, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, rubbished the report at a press conference in Accra yesterday.

“The government of Ghana and the management of education reject this report vehemently. We are opposed to its contents and we take very strong exception to the blanket statement, condemnation and allegations which have been levelled in this Transparency International report,” he said.

He said the report could not be taken lightly because it affected the education of everyone in the country.

He said if Ghana accepted the report, the consequences would be dire, since foreign universities and international organisations would begin looking at Ghanaians with suspicion.

Mr Ablakwa said Transparency International went to only Niger when it mentioned the issue of teachers who taught with fake diplomas, yet Ghana was brought into that category.

“Then they said teachers were recruited on nepotist lines, nepotism in the recruitment of teachers. They went to a country called Nepal and then concluded that developing countries are all like that.

“This is the strangest, most bizarre scientific survey I have ever come across,” he said.

As if that was not enough, Mr Ablakwa said, the transparency body had also indicated that having a teacher at home was corruption.

He asked the media to study the report diligently and not swallow it hook, line and sinker.

The government, he said, intended writing to Transparency International in the strongest terms possible.

“This is the educational system that has produced a UN Secretary General. This is an educational system that has produced many international diplomats and stalwarts. We have produced Commonwealth Secretary Generals, ECOWAS, AU and World Bank personalities,” he said.

By Emmanuel Bonney & Vida Essel/Daily Graphic/Ghana