Adutwum’s leadership style undermined Free SHS – Bempah Tandoh

Dr. Kwabena Bempah Tandoh says technical experts were sidelined during policy implementation.

Former Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Dr. Kwabena Bempah Tandoh, has argued that Adutwum’s leadership style as Minister of Education weakened the implementation of the Free SHS policy.

Speaking in an interview on Channel One TV’s Face to Face programme with Umaru Sanda Amadu on Tuesday, September 9, Dr. Tandoh said the former minister’s approach undermined the effectiveness of Free SHS, which was rolled out in 2017.

He explained that Adutwum’s leadership style relied too heavily on his personal expertise instead of drawing on the collective knowledge of education professionals, a situation he described as damaging to the policy’s long-term success.

“As a Minister of Education, regardless of what you know, you work with the technical people on the ground,” Dr. Tandoh said. “The biggest challenge was that because he felt he was in education, he could do it.”

He contrasted Dr. Adutwum’s approach with that of his predecessor, Dr. Matthew Opoku-Prempeh, who, according to him, made it a priority to engage technical teams in key decisions.

“Post-Dr. Matthew Opoku-Prempeh, that camaraderie of bringing everybody together was absent. And unfortunately, that impacted Free SHS and its quality that we saw in the first term of Akufo-Addo’s administration,” Dr. Tandoh explained. “Sometimes we were not even invited to boardroom meetings. The technical skills were not leveraged.”

Dr. Adutwum, who represents the Bosomtwe Constituency in the Ashanti Region, was first appointed Deputy Minister for Education in March 2017 before later serving as substantive minister.

While acknowledging the Free SHS policy as one of the most significant education initiatives in Ghana’s history, Dr. Tandoh stressed that its sustainability depends on stronger collaboration between political leaders and technical professionals.