Government of Ghana has plans in fulfilling its promise to construct 10 state-of-the-art Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) Centres this year across the 16 regions of Ghana.
The President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Akuffo Addo who first disclosed this whilst delivering his third State of the Nation Address early this year on the floor of Parliament said the new TVET centres are bent on demystifying science, mathematics and technology in the country.
The world class TVET centres will also help clear misconceptions of students who think these centres are second best options.
“We have no choice but to provide our young people with quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for every Ghanaian” he said.
“Countries like Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea, with whom Ghana started the independence journey, have outstripped us, today, by far, in terms of development because these countries made the fundamental decision to transform their economies from raw material, low-productivity, agrarian economies, to value-added, industrial economies,and it is the same transformation that Ghana under the leadership of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo is engineering” he added.
About 10 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) centres have been built around the country to provide support for the introduction of STEM into basic education after the completion of a successful pilot phase.
This is Government’s strategy to expand technical and vocational opportunities at both secondary and tertiary levels, and, thereby, strengthen the linkages between education and industry, as well as empower young people to deploy their skills, to employ themselves and others.
The 5-year Strategic Plan for TVET, approved by Cabinet, has set out certain structural reforms, such as setting up a TVET Service and TVET Council, and dedicating a whole division of the education service to the management of technical and vocational education, with its own Director General.
With Government fully aware of the infrastructural needs of our Technical Universities, efforts have been made at supplying demonstration laboratories for engineering students in some of the Technical Universities, including Ho Technical University.
The Ministry of Education is taking steps to providing similar laboratories to the rest of the Technical Universities.
Government is committed towards the implementation of policies that will enhance the capacity of graduates from the country’s tertiary institutions to contribute to Ghana’s socio-economic transformation.
Priscilla Anum-Noi/techvoiceafrica.com
