2022 School Placement Bribery Allegations: NIB, CID Commence Investigations

Investigations into the 2022 School Placement Bribery Allegations levels against some second-cycle institutions have been commenced by The National Investigations Bureau (NIB).

This is aimed at confirming or debunking the allegations made during the school placement that some schools officers of the GES and MoE were charging parents whose ward’s have been placed in some secondary schools through the CSSPS.

The 2022 School Placement bribery allegations have come to the knowledge of the public which made the GES to issue a statement directing parents not to pay for the enrollment of their wards. One of the bold parents who opened up on the matter is Mr. Maxwell Maundy, a Ghana Association of Writers (GWA). He condemned the repercussions and disclosed his face.

Mr Maundy documented his horrific experience with a guy he only knew as Sammy in his frantic drive to acquire a school for his daughter in a two-part open letter to the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, which was published in sections of the media.

Mr Maundy stated in the letter that in his desperation, he paid GH3,000 to Sammy, who assured him that the daughter would be placed in the Methodist Girls’ SHS in Mamfe, Akuapem, which turned out to be a hoax.

Information available to Ghanaeducation.org and sourced from the Daily Graphic indicates that the move by the NIB and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) was a response to a letter from the office of the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa.

The said letter petitioned the NIB and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to carry out an independent investigation to ascertain the truth or otherwise in the allegations of corruption in the placement of students under the Computerised Schools Selection and Placement System (CSSPS).

The GES Director-General stated in the letter, which was obtained by the Daily Graphic, that in certain cases, fingers had been pointed at high officials from the Ministry of Education (MoE), the GES/CSSPS, and the Free SHS Secretariat in relation to the 2022 School Placement Bribery Allegations.

The letter, dated April 5, 2022 and signed by Prof. Opoku-Amankwa, was addressed to the Director-General of the NIB and stated: “The Ghana Education Service’s management would appreciate it if your office could conduct a full-scale investigation into these allegations to determine their veracity or otherwise.

The CSSPS, via which successful BECE candidates were placed in SHSs, technical and vocational schools, was characterised as the most successful in previous years by the MoE this year.

At the start of the exercise, 555,353 applicants qualified for placement, and the number of candidates placed as of last Tuesday was 525,701.

While 367,811 applicants were automatically placed, 187,542 candidates were not.

A total of 99,239 unplaced applicants were manually placed, while 112,198 went through self-placement.

So far, 379,390 students have registered, with 263,358 being boarders and 116,032 being day students.

A total of 146,308 applicants who have been successfully placed have yet to enroLl. There are currently 155,174 open positions.

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Despite the successful placement procedure, one difficulty with which the exercise has been challenged this year is considerable criticism of suspected commercialization of the activity.

The entire nation is waiting for the final outcome of the 2022 School Placement Bribery Allegations investigations.

Source: Ghanaeducation.org