COTVET Chief addressing the workshop
Prof. Kwasi Opoku Amankwa, Director General (DG) of the Ghana Education Service (GES) has indicated that government is committed to ensuring quality education delivery to meet the country’s human resource needs.
According to him, government through the Ghana Education Service (GES) is rolling out a number of interventions at all levels of the country’s educational system.
At a two days orientation workshop on Secondary Education Improvement Project (SEIP) for Journalists of selected media houses in the country held at AKNAC Hotel in Accra last week, he mentioned Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET), upgrading of Colleges of Education to degree awarding institutions and issuance of professional licenses to teachers as some areas for transformation.
Upgrading of Colleges of Education
He disclosed that Colleges of Education in the country will be aligned to existing public universities for the new four year teacher education programme leading to a Bachelor of Education degree.
In line with this, the DG further indicated that a major curriculum is being developed for all levels of the country’s education.
The Director General while calling on its key partners to play their respective roles in accordance to the new dispensation, opined that education is the biggest industry in Ghana which must be managed properly so that succeeding generations can benefit from it.
“Education is key and if we get education right every other thing will be right,” he stated.
TVET Education
Dr. Fred Asamoah Kyei, Executive Director, Council for Technical Vocational Education Training (COTVET), averred that the President’s policy of “Ghana beyond Aid” will receive a great boost if as a country more emphasis is laid on Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET).
“Too much emphasis, since independence, has been laid on grammar education which today is costing the country the huge graduate unemployment,” he remarked.
He was however happy that the new move by government to focus on TVET is a process that will close the gap between training and industry as well as reduce the huge unemployment deficit.
According to him, plans are far advanced to realign all TVET institutions to under the Ministry of Education (MOE) and be managed by COTVET.
“There is the need to harmonize the activities of all TVET related institution such as the National Vocational Technical Institute (NVTI), Opportunity Industrialization Centre (OIC) among others into producing graduates who are fit for the manpower needs of the country.
At present, government is in the process of constructing twenty (20) state of the art TVET institutions throughout the country.
The Deputy Minister of Education in charge of General Education, Dr.Yaw Adutwum disclosed that teachers will undergo Management and Leadership training courses to prepare them adequately for their schedules.
By Solomon Ofori