In what appears to bEducatione an exposé on Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, a United States (US)-based journalist, Kevin Taylor reveals that the former mathematics teacher’s much-touted academic credentials are nothing but a hoax.
According to the outspoken online presenter, claims that Dr Adutwum who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Bosomtwi Constituency in the Ashanti Region, is an ‘education colossus’, is false, because of the mess currently bedeviling Ghana’s educational sector.
Taylor insists, the Minister neither has any record nor possess the academic prowess to transform the education sector like Ghanaians were made to believe.
He alleged that the Education Minister’s purported school in the US, did not even fall within the curriculum of the state it operates.
“The school this guy said he has in California, it is no school at all, it is a studies. It is those from the sugarcane areas like Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, those illegal immigrants who enter America, who cannot speak English, they are the ones he was doing studies for,” he alleged.
The maverick presenter made the claims on his ‘With All Due Respect’ show on Loud Silence Media, an online channel created by him.
He debunked the claims saying, the said school located in California in the US, is a ‘charter school’ or ‘studies school’ where non-Americans who enter the country illegally go for studies.
Making the claim on his show monitored by The Anchor, Kevin Taylor said it is laughable that the Minister who until last year was a Deputy Minister to Matthew Opoku Prempeh was touted as an accomplished academic going to bring the necessary changes to Ghana’s education sector couldn’t achieve the needed result.
Kevin Taylor blamed the Ghanaian media for the mishap, because the Minister is not what the media hyped him to be.
Delving further into the Minister’s past records, Kevin Taylor said the so-called school served as a facility for nationals from Mexico, Argentina and the likes who could not speak English.
The outspoken media personality regretted that Dr Adutwum at some point was compared to former Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast and Minister for Education Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang.
“His school does not fall within the government curriculum. This one is classes teacher. He was doing education management; he does not know anything about building a structure, like educational structure to make it work.
He does not have an idea. We have wasted money for nothing. Like this one it is cheap talk, it’s the media that made them,” he noted.
According to him, “This guy lived in California, go and look for his school. It is not school, it is studies. I will show you the name [of the] school. They use chit for food. It is government that gives them a little. It is sugarcane people, students there 90 per cent can’t speak English”.
“They only study A, B; is what is taught there. The name is charter school. And you want to compare this to Naana Opoku Agyemang…That this one can change our education, see what we have today”, Kevin claimed on his show.
A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state system in which it is located.
Meanwhile, records show Dr Adutwum was the founder and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of New Designs Charter School in South Los Angeles.
The educational group operates two college-preparatory secondary schools with students from grades 6th-12th. The students select areas of concentration in science, technology, engineering mathematics and theatrical arts.