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Government set to ensure mass education for employable skills

By GNA
Education Government set to ensure mass education for employable skills
JUN 1, 2017 LISTEN

Accra, June 1, GNA - Dr Matthew Opoku-Prempeh, the Minister of Education, says government remains focused to the provision of quality mass education to a level that would not only ensure the acquisition of knowledge but also skills for employability.

He said this would be achieved through focusing on the Free Senior High School (SHS) agenda and the commitment to paying critical attention to Technical and Vocational training and mainstreaming them into the educational system.

He said government was currently pursuing partnership with private enterprises to produce a whole eco-system of development for employable skills and jobs targeting the youth in particular.

Dr Opoku-Prempeh said this would be done in collaboration with all its agencies which were directly linked to implementing transition programmes for school leavers.

He cited countries such as Ireland, Spain and Morocco which had recorded tremendous change in their economies using this eco-system development model.

Dr Opoku-Prempeh, who was delivering an address at the 2017 MasterCard Foundation (MCF) Scholars Programme Annual Learning Summit in Accra, commended the Campaign for Female Education (Camfed Ghana) for the tremendous contribution to female education and empowerment, especially in deprived communities.

He said although a lot was being done to improve enrolment levels across-board, the fact remained that most young people were still out of school and had no employable skills.

He said this was unacceptable for a country which was endowed with rich natural resources compared to others such as South Korea, Japan and Singapore which had none and yet had focused on their human resource development to attain giant economic and developmental successes.

Dr Opoku-Prempeh said Ghana's new vision was that no one was deprived of education and more importantly secondary education due to funding limitations adding that the Free SHS and the provision of one hot meal for day students to be rolled out in September this year would address it.

He said government was not ignorant about the challenges that would come with the implementation of the programme but would confront and address them as they came in order to achieve the expected outcome.

Dr Opoku-Prempeh, however, stated that no matter the good intentions of government it could not do it alone and that supports provided by Camfed Ghana and other Civil Society and NOGs were highly appreciated.

He said the Ministry's doors were opened to all partners for further collaborations, consultations and discussions for better education outcomes.

Mrs Dolores Dickson, the Regional Executive Director of Camfed Ghana, explained that the Summit, which was on the theme: 'Preparing Students for Employment and Entrepreneurship: What works?', would discuss issues that could enhance quality secondary and tertiary education.

It would also make recommendations on how to institute and strengthen transition programmes for school leavers.

She said it would provide the platform for the participants to critically examine the range of transition programmes available to support student's move from school to entrepreneurship, employment and further study.

GNA

By Christabel Addo, GNA

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