Speaking at the 2023 Ghana Teacher Prize being held at Takoradi in the Western Region, he Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, has taken a subtle jab at the National Democratic Congress’ Green Book, while referring to the amount of work the sitting president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has out into the education sector.
He said, “free SHS has not destroyed our educational system in the Ghana”
He underscored the pivotal role that teachers play in the country’s education system and stressed the necessity of providing them with the requisite resources, tools, support, and training to empower them to deliver high-quality education
The minister commends teachers across the country for their massive support and contribution in the education sector, adding that Ghana is one of the few countries with no teacher shortage as he admitted that more still needs to be done to improve the livelihood of teachers and the educational sector.
Referring to the Green Book, a comprehensive document put together by the National Democratic Congress under John Dramani Mahama that showcased all the projects undertaken by their government, Dr. Adutwum said he has adopted evidenced-based approaches in highlighting what the president has done in education.
“We are one of the few countries in the world where you can get 100 teachers today, if you want them. So, our universities have done a good job, but we need to a better job in the deployment process and we are going to do just that.
“You seem politicians, sometimes we don’t do ourselves a favour. We are our worst enemies. Worst enemies in the sense that if you look at the work Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has put into education, somebody can look at you, say with a straight face that he has done nothing. So, these days, I do evidence-based communication; no Green Book wahala – I show you what we have done,” he said.
For the records, the minister has projected how positively the free SHS has impacted the academic performance. The data according to WAEC, percentage of candidates who obtained A1-C6 in the core subjects from 2015 to 2022 indicate that, the percentage of students who passed in English as at 2015 is 42.2% and has improved to 60.39% in 2022, Integrated science has improved from 28.7 in 2015 to 62.45% in 2022, 32.4% in Mathematics as at 2015 and 61.39 in 2022. The number of students who passed in Social studies in 2025 scores 57.4% and 71.51% in 2022.
2020, 2021 and 2022 are the Free SHS graduates and the only years in the past 8 years that more than 50% of candidates obtained A1-C6 in all the core subjects