My attention has been drawn to a speech read by the Minister for Education, Hon. Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, at the Innovation Africa Summit 2019, held at Movenpick Ambassador Hotel in Accra, on Tuesday, 3rd December, 2019.  The Minister made several false allegations, regarding the state of education in Ghana; at the time he was appointed early in 2017 and assigned the responsibility of overseeing this very key sector.  Deducing from the fact that Hon. Matthew Opoku Prempeh's audience included participants from other countries other than Ghana, one would have expected the Minister to be candid, sincere and truthful about the true nature of Ghana's education. Regrettably however, he was as usual, blinded by his usual political lenses and self aggrandisement to peddle falsehood to his international audience; believing it could sink and settle as wholly true. It's therefore right and just, that I serve this response on some of the NDC's successes in the sector of basic education, which the Minister deliberately refused to acknowledge and concede in humility. Clearly, the evidence available, to which the Minister was fully furnished and knows, no doubt, does not support his claims of bleakness if he was honest.  To begin with, I call on the Minister to publicise the report he commissioned (with verifiable dates) which put teacher absenteeism in Ghana at 30% in January 2017. What the NDC administration found in the World Bank/ UNICEF report of September 2014 was a rate of absenteeism of 27%, which was reduced to 7% by the end of 2016; through prudent, wide consultation and participation aided by effective leadership. The Minister must support his claims by credible data. Other achievements under the NDC that debunk the wrong impression and information Hon. Matthew Opoku Prempeh  displayed in his speech, include but not limited to, the following:  1) Percentage of trained teachers increased from 31.3% in 2008/09 to 65.9% in 2015/16; 2) The  number of ECCD facilities increased from 998,000 in 2005/06 to over 1,775,000 in 2015/2016; 3) Two thousand and thirty one (2, 031) schools under trees were removed; 4) One thousand, one hundred and twenty nine  (1,129) classroom blocks were constructed; 5) Through the GPASS, Scholarships were awarded to over 600,000 girls; 6) In 2015/2016, capitation grant was paid on behalf of 5.5m children/pupils;  7) Seven hundred and eighty seven thousand, four hundred and eighty five      (787,485) school uniforms were distributed to school children in deprived areas; 8) Forty thousand (40,000) Made-in-Ghana sandals were distributed to children/pupils in deprived areas across the country; 9) Fifty four thousand    (54,000) laptops were distributed to teachers across Ghana; 10) Sixty thousand  (60,000) laptops were distributed to basic schools across the country; 11) Forty six million, nine hundred and fifty eight thousand, one hundred and sixty (46,958,160) exercise books were distributed to pupils in basic schools;  12) The number of basic schools increased from 10,213 in 2008/09 to 14,832 in 2015/16, an addition of 4,619 schools; 13) The number of trained teachers engaged, increased from 58.4% in 2008/09 to 78.0% in 2015/16; 14) NEA: At primary 6, proportion of children/pupils reaching proficiency and achieving 55% and above in Mathematics improved from 9.8% in 2005/06 to 25% in 2016; 15) Proficiency in English for pupils in primary 3 rose from 16.4% in 2005/06 to 37.0%; and primary 6 from 23.6% to 36.0% in the same period;  16) Global recognition: UNESCO recognised Ghana for achieving MDG 1 & 2. 17) The best ever BECE results in Ghana were recorded from 2014-2016. The above notwithstanding, I am further obliged to challenge other deceitful comments made by the Minister. On claims of unpaid bills, the Minister should let the public know if the Ministry [at any given time] has cleared all of its bills? For a government, now with hindsight from opposition, when it claimed that Ghana was sitting on money in abundance but has now set an unprecedented record in borrowing, it is simply irritating to speak of its  unsettled bills to contractors and suppliers. At any rate, didn't the NPP promise teachers on its campaign platforms in 2016, that it would clear all due arrears if voted into power? Teachers voted the NPP into power, believing in the electoral promise, and as such, have every legitimate right to demand from the NPP government to fulfill its part of the bargain. But no, the sector Minister and his government, after over three years in office, blame all their failures on its immediate political opponent, the NDC. As though the government of President Akufo Addo has no sense of shame, Hon. Matthew Opoku Prempeh accused the NDC on Asempa FM of instigating the current nationwide strike declared by the three teacher unions: GNAT, NAGRAT and CCT.  The false blame of the NDC raised by the Minister, is not unexpected though, judging from the track record of Hon. Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh.  Thankfully, Ghanaians and stakeholders in education have not forgotten, that he was the same Minister who publicly declared, without a shred of evidence, that the former President of Ghana H. E. John Dramani Mahama, bused parents and thier wards, from across the country to fake fainting at the Independence Square in Accra, in the wake of the shambolic and corrupted placement system for BECE qualifiers into Senior High Schools under his watch.  This blatant lie, for which the Minister should have rendered an unqualified apology, remains one of the most incredibly shameless coverup for the lack of planning on the part of his Ministry, which resulted in the unprecedented display of dramatic recklessness in the name of a very simple, too often repeated exercise, of placing school children into Senior High Schools.  The Minister for Education should focus on dealing with the many challenges affecting education in Ghana today. He must learn to understand what democracy requires of those in leadership: effective and broad consultation, consensus building, tolerance of dissenting views/voices as  ingredients for good governance, and above all, being transparent and accepting responsibility.  Signed.  Dr. Clement Abasinaab Apaak, M.P for Builsa-South  and Deputy Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament