GES denies claims of reinstating Teacher Kwadwo ‘sacked’ 2yrs ago

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has denied public reports making headlines, indicating Mr. Michael Owusu Afriyie, popularly known as Teacher Kwadwo, has been reinstated into the Service.

The spokesperson for GES, Mr Daniel Fenyi, in a social media post debunking said, “The attention of the Ghana Education Service (GES) has been drawn to reports circulating in sections of the media suggesting that Mr. Michael Owusu Afriyie, popularly known as Teacher Kwadwo, has been reinstated into the Service.

The Ghana Education Service wishes to state that the report is false. Mr. Owusu Afriyie has not been reinstated.”

The management of the Ghana Education Service (GES), however, noted that if Mr. Owusu Afriyie believes his 2021 dismissal was unjust, he has the right to formally petition the GES for reconsideration.

“If Mr. Owusu Afriyie believes that his dismissal, which happened in 2021, is contestable, he is encouraged to submit a formal petition in writing for due consideration,” The Service’s spokesman said.

The public is hereby advised to disregard the false reports.

The former primary 4 teacher of Akrofuom D/A Primary School, Mr. Michael Owusu Afriyie, popularly known as Teacher Kwadwo, known for his activism to fix Ghana’s education system, was sacked in 2021 by the Ghana Education Service for misconduct, including absenteeism and insubordination.

A letter of his appointment termination, which went viral on social media and was sighted by Pretertiary.com, said teacher Kwadwo absented himself from the school for 55 days in the last academic year without permission.

The letter from the Ghana Education Service (GES) under the erstwhile Akufo-Addo government said teacher Kwadwo absented himself from the school for 55 days in the last academic year without permission.

He was said to have failed to prepare a lesson plan as a professional teacher and disregarded the directive from the District Director to prepare the lesson plan, as well as refused to prepare a lesson note to be vetted by the Head teacher of the school.

“Michael Owusu Afriyie exhibited the highest level of insubordination towards the District Director and the School Improvement Support Officer (SISO) responsible for the school, as well as the Head Teacher of the school, and in some instances refused to respond to queries from both the head teacher and the SISO

He further even refused to respond to a query issued to him by the District Director and in some instances refused to appear before a panel set up by the District Director to investigate his conduct,” the letter said.

The Ghana Education Service therefore considered the conduct very serious enough as unprofessional and unethical and rejected the recommendation of a Committee that Teacher Kwadwo should be re-assigned and recommended that his sanction is not commensurate with the established misconduct as his unprofessional and unethical conduct merits summary dismissal.

In as much as management considers his numerous contributions such as painting, donation among others, to the schoo,l they still directed that his appointment with GES should be terminated forthwith.