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30.01.2012 Press Release

WHERE WE GOT IT ALL WRONG WITH OUR TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AS A COUNTRY STARTED FROM THE POLICY MAKERS.

By National Union of Ghana Students
Peter Kwasi KodjieNUGS PresidentPeter Kwasi Kodjie_NUGS President
30.01.2012 LISTEN

When you place someone second fiddle to another in such a way as to make him or her inferior thereby nullifying the reason for existence of that person, what do you expect from him or her - Excellence? Certainly not! I am not sure we are going to get that as a country. The very moment we killed technical and vocational education in Ghana was when our policy makers in the Ghana Education Service (G.E.S) set a caveat on technical and vocational education. The G.E.S postulated in policy documents that when one failed to get admission into the mainstream secondary school system; then, the other alternatives were to go to a technical or vocational school.

My goodness, where in any serious country did technical and vocational education become an option for failures or the less endowed in academia – yet it is ironical that this is the recommended path the G.E.S is asking us to follow to achieve the status of a developed country. No country has brought about an industrial revolution without making a deliberate attempt to invest in technical and vocational education. Technical education is a special education that focuses typically on science and technology; incidentally we are living in the modern age of science and technology, and that is why the countries leading the way in today's world are those who have been able to harness the right human resource for their technological needs.

The 17th and 18th centuries were periods of industrial revolution where technology was heralded and attracted the largest share of the wealth of nations like the US, UK, France, Russia, etc; hitherto had been a period where the classics had prominence over industry. Today however it appears this country still lives in that classical era, where we have chosen to prioritize the arts, history and classics (the social sciences) over science and technology at a time when everything is driven by innovation which is a by-product of science and technology. In fact, no nation can progress unless it makes a deliberate attempt to promote technical and vocational education.

Technical education produces the technicians we need for our industries and it is undeniable that the progress of every country depends on industrialization without which a robust economy would not be possible. It is not surprising therefore that Nkrumah's CPP sought rapid industrialization over all else, if only successive governments had continued that policy, this country would not be where it is today – we would have been rated probably ahead of Malaysia.


Quoting from the 2002 United Nations (UN) Bonn Declaration of International Experts on TVET, “…since education is considered the key to effective development strategies, technical and vocational education must be the master key that can alleviate poverty, promote peace, conserve the environment, improve the quality of life, and help achieve sustainable development…”

To be forthright, technical and vocational education is for persons who show hands-on talent (doing things with their hands or being creative) and must pursue technical or vocational education upon advice so that their talent can better be sharpened to properly serve the scientific and technological needs of the country. Anything short of this approach will not yield appropriate results. We are growing maize and yet we want to reap rice. It is simply illogical to do this, but that is what the G.E.S is doing and the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) will also have to be blamed for being sluggish in executing their responsibilities.

What Must We Do?

1. GES MUST REVISE ITS POLICY DOCUMENTS
The Ghana Education Service (G.E.S) must revise its policy documents that undermine technical and vocational education. Technical and vocational education must be projected as a special training for students who show interest in science. All the websites that communicate demeaning messages about technical education must be revised quickly.

The G.E.S must revise the curriculum for technical and vocational education to make it more meaningful in our present time.

2. TVET MUST BE UP AND DOING
The Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) must take its work seriously. The outfit must aim at improving competiveness at the technical and vocational level as is done by the administrators of the senior high schools. For instance, the grading of senior high schools increases competiveness and places them in the lime light.

With each school trying to outdo each other, there is a lot of incentive to push for higher academic laurels. With no such thing in place for the Technical and Vocational Schools, the opposite is the case.

The TVET must push for more funding from government and other agencies that have technical education as a priority. It is 2 to 3 times more expensive to run an excellent technical school because of the high investment in machinery; but it is necessary too that we do this all-important investment to produce the vital human resource we need to drive our science and technological agenda as a country.

TVET must undertake some radical public relations to promote technical and vocational education to get the needed attention and attract students who love science and technology but do not want to go to technical schools because of the stigma attached to persons who go to technical schools.

3. GOVERNMENT MUST INVEST TREMENDOUSLY IN TECH. & VOC. EDUCATION

Government must prioritize technical and vocational education. This should be backed by a deliberate policy to expand technical and vocational institutions across the country – we could start with establishing at least two (2) world class technical and vocational institutions in each district. Government must show this commitment by increasing budget allocations to the technical and vocational sector. The GETFund must direct a chunk of its resources towards producing technicians for the country's growing industry needs.

We cannot eat our cake and still have it. We cannot on one breadth yearn for development as a country and on the other breadth not be prepared to make the required sacrifice(s) needed to get there. Our country is rich in raw materials but we must have enough technical know-how to benefit from them. Technical Education will make our country rich and prosperous because we will have the needed manpower to convert our raw materials into a form that will fetch us commensurate foreign earnings.

Investing in technical and vocational training is the only answer to the problems of our expanding economy.

Signed.
Peter Kwasi Kodjie
(President-NUGS)
(0242879028)

Courage Kwasi Nobi
(Gen. Secretary-NUGS)
(0206497320)
Email: [email protected]
[email protected]

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