13th UEW congregation lecture held in Winneba

The Chairman of the Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission (PURC) Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng has said that to address the needs of millions of young people who drop out of school annually and those who graduated without employment skills and knowledge, there was the need to pay more attention to vocational and skills training.

Professor Frimpong-Boateng was speaking at the 13th congregation lecture of the University of Education, Winneba, (UEW) at Winneba on Thursday.

It was on the theme, “Sustaining excellence in educational leadership for accelerated national development”.

Dean, lecturers and students of the UEW and heads of government institution in Winneba attended the lecture.

Speaking on the topic, “Role of education in addressing streetism”, Professor Frimpong-Boateng said records indicated that there were large numbers of children who were not in pre-school and basic schools.

Professor Frimpong-Boateng who is the founder of the National Cardiothoracic Centre and President of the Ghana Heart Foundation said 888,000 children representing 56 percent of a total 1,600,000 of the age group were enrolled in the Junior High School.

“At the Senior High School level only 222,000, representing 14 percent of the 1,600,000 are in school.

These figures clearly show that secondary education, inadequate as it is remained the most accessible form of higher education in Ghana, he said.

Professor Frimpong-Boateng said the establishment of the National Council for Technical and Vocational Training Education to guide and sensitize the public on Technical and vocational Education Training is a step in the right direction.

He said vocational education should be seen not only as a means of providing training and employment for the youth, but also as an indispensable link in the chain of wealth creation and prosperity for Ghanaians.

The Vice-Chancellor of the UEW, Professor Akwasi Asabere-Ameyaw, who chaired the function, attributed the increasing number of street children to poverty.

He appealed to society, parents and relatives to support their families members especially the youth to acquire skills to avoid streetism in the country.