Meet Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, A Renowned Educationist

Ghana’s Ministry of Education headed by Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh is arguably, the most effective ministry to have impacted the lives of many a Ghanaian.

The success story of the Education Ministry would not be complete without the mention of Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, the able Deputy Minister.

Under the Nana Akufo-Addo administration, Ghana’s education sector has benefitted from the rich experience of seasoned educationist Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum whose pivotal role is worth mentioning and sharing.

Dr. Adutwum, 54, is the Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe having polled 46,238 votes (85.82%) out of the 54,144 valid votes cast at the 2016 parliamentary elections.

Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum believes, “the Free SHS program is genuine” and that assertions by detractors that its implementation is unattainable is a non starter.

As a believer in growth of education, Dr. Adutwum has called for a partnership between the public and private sectors towards the development of education in the country and noted that good practices in private schools can be replicated in public schools to improve the quality of education.

He is one man whose dream has provided better education for the youth - both in Ghana and in Los Angeles in the United States of America.

He has variously been described as, “A wonderful person”; “a good Math teacher, who has a good personality.”

Others see him as, "A great man and a Mathematician who understands students”.

Many also see him as being very serious about education and that he sets high standards for students.

Students believe he is very motivating and also, pushes students to persevere in pursuit of their educational goals.

After 24 years stay in the USA, he returned to help the suffering masses make a decent living while children acquire basic knowledge at school.

His commitment in the growth of the education sector in Ghana is stems from his assurance prior to the 2016 elections to use his rich experience to help then NPP flagbearer transform the current system of education in Ghana by rectifying the trend where the gap between the rich and the poor keeps widening in terms of provision of quality education.

Believing that education is the bedrock of national development, he has brought his rich experience in the US to Ghana to push forward, Nana Addo’s vision of making education accessible to every Ghanaian child and educate them to ensure economic empowerment of the populace.

He has noted that Ghana is endowed with some of the best brains in the world and has assured to help raise the level of education in Ghana to that of the United States of America.

Today, the much touted flagship free SHS policy of the Akufo-Addo led New Patriotic Party government is in its second year with over 900,000 students benefiting.

Under the programme, first-year students who qualified for admission to senior high schools will not be charged admission, library, science centre, computer laboratory, examination, and utility fees, among others.

Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Land Economy (Business Administration with a major in Real Estate) from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology prior to his immigrating to the US.

He has a Masters degree in Education Management from University of La Verne and holds a PhD (Educational Policy and Administration), University of South California, California, 2009 and is founder and former CEO, New Designs Educational Group, Los Angeles, California with a combined enrollment of about 1200 students in grades 6-12 in Los Angeles.

He also owns Lake View Group of Companies including Lake View Schools (Crèche to SHS) and micro finance company among others.

Prior to founding the first New Designs Charter School, he worked as Mathematics and Information Technology teacher at Manual Arts High School for ten years. At Manual Arts High School, he founded the International Studies Academy, which served as a small learning community where many students thrived socially and academically. In addition, he served as a Lead Math Teacher in the USC/Manual Arts Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI).

His experience in the NAI program confirmed his belief that high standards in a well-structured learning environment could lead to higher levels of student achievement.

Most of the students he taught in the NAI program proceeded to higher education in institutions like UCLA, USC, Yale, UC Berkeley, Stanford, and Cornell University among others.

At the national level, he served for two years as a member of a task force established by National Research Center for Career and Technical to develop a national model for career and technical education at the high school and college levels.

The project was coordinated by the New Designs for Learning center, based at the University of Oregon and was headed by George Copa, a professor of education and a career and technical education expert.

It doesn't surprise many seeing Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum as the man Ghana has all these years been waiting for to help develop an educational system that gears toward realising the goals of education in Ghana.