The Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, has been officially announced as the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) parliamentary candidate for the Bosomtwe Constituency in the 2024 elections.
Dr. Adutwum was the only candidate that filed to run in the party’s parliamentary primary in the constituency.
The parliamentary candidate was acclaimed during a special delegates’ meeting of the party held in the constituency at the weekend.
More than 1,000 delegates took part in the exercise which was supervised by the District Director of the Electoral Commission (EC) and observed by the Ashanti Regional Secretary of the NPP, Adom Appiah.
It was a sight to behold as all of the delegates screamed in unison to support Dr. Adutwum’s candidacy in response to a question posed by the District Director of EC.
The Education Minister thanked the delegates for renewing their confidence in him and reassured them of his unwavering commitment to representing their interests to the best of his ability.
“I urge you to work hard in your respective communities so that we can collectively win the 2024 general election for continuity of the good work of His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo,” he stated.
Dr. Adutwum said he would, with God’s help, do everything within his power to justify the delegates’ decision and lead the party to another victory in December, while accepting the endorsement in all humility.
Elections
He contested the Bosomtwe Constituency in the Ashanti Region during the 2016 general election, and obtained 46,238 votes out of the total 54,144 votes cast, representing 85.82%, to his closest contender, the then District Chief Executive (DCE) of the Bosomtwe District, Veronica Antwi-Adjei of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), who had 7,215 votes (13.39%).
Dr. Adutwum was re-elected as a Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe in the 2020 general election with 57,939 votes out of 68,327 total valid votes, representing 84.80%, defeating Priscilla Mercy Nketia of the NDC, who received 10,388 votes, representing 15.2% of the total valid votes.
Ministerial Appointment
President Nana Akufo-Addo appointed him as Deputy Education Minister in March 2017. In 2020, he was named substantive Minister of Education in the second term of the President.
Initiatives
Dr. Adutwum spearheaded a plan to build 35 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Senior High Schools (SHSs) and five (5) STEM universities around the country.
As a crucial step toward this aim, 10 STEM SHSs were established in 2022.This initiative encourages STEM education and offers students specific learning opportunities to flourish in these critical subjects.
In 2022, he awarded scholarships to 61 engineering and medical students in his constituency for the 2022 academic year. With this initiative, the total number of students receiving the MP’s scholarship for engineering and medicine has reached 91, bringing him closer to his objective of helping 100 students over a 10-year period.
Dr. Adutwum, who hails from Jachie in the Bosomtwe District, obtained a bachelor’s degree in Land Economy (Business Administration with a major in Real Estate) from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology before moving to the United States.
He received a master’s degree in Education Management from the University of La Verne and a doctorate in Educational Policy, Planning, and Administration from the University of Southern California.
By Ernest Kofi Adu