Public Agenda (Accra)
Kwaku Baah-Acheamfour
2 November 2009
Cape Coast — The Acting Director of the Ghana Education Service in the Central Region, Mr. Obotan Larbi, has called on government to institute scholarship schemes in technical and vocational institutions to attract more students to boost the country's human resource base especially in the field of skills training and acquisition.
Such a policy, he said, would not only ensure that Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is made more attractive to all and sundry and thereby boosting enrollment; it will also ensure that more people would be trained to work in the emerging industrial sector, especially in the oil and gas field.
According to him, the continuous marginalization of the sector, with more emphasis being placed on grammar education at the disadvantage of TVET, has made it really difficult for the country to advance. This, he explained, has reflected in the unemployment situation of the country as even tertiary institution graduates find it difficult to find the 'paper and pen' work which they have been trained for. Indeed, they find it almost impossible to work on their own.
With the implementation of TVET, they can even start something on their own with little assistance and can really contribute effectively to the nation's growth and developmental process, he stated.
Addressing participants at the 25th conference of Association of Principals of Technical Institutions(APTI) in Cape Coast on the theme "Quality Technical and Vocational Education, a prerequisite for Ghana's Industrialization and Oil Discovery," Mr. Larbi who is also a member of the Council of Directors of Education (CODE),Ghana, explained that the time has really come for the country to emulate the examples of advanced countries like Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Japan and others who really invested in their manpower for an effective developmental take off to the extent that they have able to meet their pressing needs and even give the excess as aid to African countries of which Ghana is part.
"The emerging Oil and Gas business in Ghana really calls for more to be done in skills training as those with technical ideas would really be required to work in these fields. This is why we need to train more people unless we want to import ideas from the Western world. There are skills that could be obtained here only if we would make it a priority," he added.
The president of CODE, John Nana Boafo, urged government to provide the technical and vocational schools with good facilities, like resource centres with modern equipments that their colleagues in the grammar schools are enjoying. This will make the teaching and learning process not only simple but enjoyable.
"APTI believes that the time has come for TVERT to be given the attention that it deserves. This is why it should be placed under the Ministry of Educations council for TVERT and not that of GES council to ensure smooth direction and coordination." he added.
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