GES Director-General Prof Opoku-Amankwa relieved of post

The Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa has been relieved of his post.

He is to go back to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) from where he was seconded to the GES.

A letter from the presidency, dated October 17, 2022, signed by the Secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo Asante, thanked him for his service to the nation and wished him the "very best in future endeavours."

This is following the termination of his secondment and a directive to return to his position at the KNUST. 

Prof Opoku-Amankwa was first appointed as Director-General (D-G) of the GES in April 2017 on secondment from the KNUST.

And after three years in office, the President in a letter dated January 22, 2021, appointed him again as D-G of GES and another letter dated June 14, 2021, extending his secondment from KNUST.

But the letter from the presidency said the extension was in “contravention of the Human Resource Policy Framework and Manual of the Public Services Commission as it purports to extend your secondment beyond the 3-year maximum limit.”

"The Ministry of Education has informed this Office [of President] that the exigencies that required your skills and expertise as Director-General of the Ghana Education Service do not exist any longer. Moreover, the extension of your secondment by the 14th June, 2021 letter is in contravention of the Human Resource Policy Framework and Manual of the Public Services Commission, as it purports to extend your secondment beyond the 3-year maximum limit”, it added.

Read the full letter below:

Prof. Opoku-Amankwa in a television interview with Joy News in July 2022 disclosed his outfit was undertaking a unit cost analysis on each student under the Free Senior High School policy.

That, he said, was going to help determine which of the cost components the government can relinquish for parents of students to handle, if it comes up for a broader discussion on a possible review of the free SHS policy.

He said the review has been proposed and not really started or ended yet.

When he was asked in that interview whether a review of the programme was underway and if it had ended, Prof Opoku-Amankwa said they were nowhere near a conclusion but a key component of the review was geared at ensuring a cost arrangement that ensures quality.

"I think it is bigger conversation not only for the GES, not only for the Ministry of Education but for the entire country and then, what we will do is that, for us [GES] on our part, we will start with the smaller ideas of looking at aspects of it."

Free SHS review prerogative of President - Prof. Opoku-Amankwa

After the Joy News interview, Prof Opoku-Amankwa issued a statement to clarify what he said about the review of the Free SHS policy and said the GES was not undertaking any review of the free SHS.

“Any such review of the free SHS policy is the sole prerogative of the President and the government. The Ghana Education Service is an agency and does not formulate or initiate a review of policies,” Prof. Opoku-Amankwa explained in the statement.

Before GES

Before his GES appointment, at the KNUST, he was the Dean of the International Programmes Office (IPO) before replacing Mr Jacob Kor who was Director-General of the GES from January 2015 to April 2017.

Prof Opoku-Amankwa holds a PHD in Language and Education from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom.

He studied Social Sciences at the KNUST. 

Before the GES, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Publishing Studies at the KNUST and has knowledge about the social, political, economic and cultural life in Ghana, having studied, worked and researched in a number of communities across the country for over three decades. 

He schooled at Suhum Secondary Technical before entering Wesley 

College in Kumasi where he obtained his Post Secondary Teachers Certificate and taught for over 10 years. 

After a series of higher education, he was appointed lecturer at the KNUST in 1999 and by dint of hard work, he was promoted to senior lecturer 10 years afterwards and became an Associate Professor in 2014.

He has held a number of positions at both national and international levels including Dean of the Faculty of Art, Vice Dean and Head of Department of Publishing at KNUST.