Prez. Akufo-Addo sacks Director-General of GES

• Posted on October 19, 2022October 19, 2022
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Prof Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa has been dismissed.

The Office of the President announced the termination of Prof. Opoku-Amankwa’s appointment in a letter dated, Monday, October 17, 2022.

“The Ministry of Education has informed this Office that the exigencies that required your skills and expertise as Director-General of the Ghana Education Service do not exist any longer”, the letter stated.

Having been appointed in April 2017, specific reference was however made about Prof. Opoku-Amankwa’s secondment in January 2021 from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

The contract was extended again in June 2021 but this extension according to the letter was in “contravention of the Human Resource Policy Frame and Manual of the Public Services Commission as it purports to extend your secondment beyond the 3-year maximum limit.”

Prof. Opoku-Amankwa has been instructed to return to the KNUST.

“The President thanks you for your service to the nation and wishes you the very best in your future endeavours”, the letter from the Presidency signed by the Secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo Asante, concluded.

Copied in the letter are the Vice President, Chief of Staff, the Minister of Education, Board Chairperson, Ghana Education Service, the Vice Chancellor at KNUST and the Registrar of the same institution.

Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa once went public saying government’s much-touted Free Senior High School (SHS) policy was under review in the heat of the operational challenges facing second-cycle institutions.

He later denied the reports attributed to him after contradictions by the government officials in the education sector.

In August, however, President Akufo-Addo extended the term of service of the Deputy Director-General (Management Services) of the Ghana Education Service, Anthony Boateng for one more year amidst agitations by some teacher unions.

He is continuing to assist in the development of the Ministry of Education’s National Education Institute as approved by Cabinet.