Deputy Education Minister Gifty Twum-Ampofo apologises to teachers over her “fact-finding” comment

The Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Technical and Vocation Education and Training (TVET) who doubles as the Abuakwa North Member of Parliament (MP), Gifty Twum-Ampofo in an interview has apologized to teachers about her recent comments while addresssing Akropong Presbyterian College in the Eastern Region.

Over the last weekend, she addressed the 175th anniversary of the Akropong Presbyterian College in the Eastern Region where she was reported to have said teachers should be blamed teachers for the struggling economy of Ghana.

An excerpt from her speech which brought dissatisfaction in the teaching fraternity reads

“Research has proved that a country’s Gross Tertiary Enrollment has a lot to do with the GDP of the country. The performance of the economy depends on the Gross Tertiary Enrollment. So the teacher is to be blamed for the poor economy, not the Finance Minister.”

Speaking in an interview on Tv3’s New Day yesterday, 4th July 2023,
Hon. Gifty Twum-Ampofo
admitted her derogatory comment/statement and said “sorry” to all teachers. She also added that the words she uttered were not laced with harm or were not passed to devalue the struggles of teachers.

Further, she spoke about her career/professional background where she said “I will never take teachers for granted in my life because I am a teacher and I don’t regret being a teacher.”

She also laced her apology with the “Christian factor” saying
“I haven’t denied that but what I am saying is it is unfortunate that people that you are praising, you could quickly jump to accuse them. It was a fact-finding and I stated that.”

“I can’t hurt teachers and as a Christian if you do something or you say something you don’t mean to hurt anybody, so if the people are hurt I am sorry.”

SOURCE: Coverghana.com.gh