Betty Mould Swerves Journalists Over Woyome Saga

What was widely expected to be a press conference to offer Betty Mould-Iddrisu an opportunity to respond to the media and opposition attacks on her over the Woyome saga on Wednesday turned out to be a platform for the Education Ministry to tell journalists what the former Attorney General and Minister of Justice has been doing to improve the quality of basic education in Ghana. Mrs. Mould-Iddrisu, the current education minister, did not attend the press conference. Instead, her deputy, Mahama Ayariga, was drafted to stand in for her. Ahead of the press conference journalists were under the impression that Mrs. Mould-Iddrisu would state her position on calls for her prosecution and pressure on President John Evans Atta Mills for her dismissal. But, after a horde of journalists invited to cover the presser sat down, an official of the Ministry announced that the planned meeting was to enable officials to share with journalists progress the Ministry had made in the education sector. Hon. Ayariga, subsequently read to journalists a prepared text he said the minister had planned to present to the media in person but for an equally important official assignment she needed to attend. He told journalists the Global Partnership for Educations has agreed to sink US$76 million into Ghana's basic education sector, which has lately been fraught with poor Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results. The NDC Parliamentary candidate for Bawku said a significant part of the funding approved by the Global Partnership for Education will go into improving girl-child enrolment into schools.