Dr Prince Hamid Armah, Deputy Chair of Parliament’s Committee on Education, has revealed that government has taken a commendable step towards making Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) a viable option.
According to him, government is achieving this through infrastructure development which acts as a channel for development of the country.
Doubling as the Member of Parliament for Kwesimintsim in the Western Region, Dr Armah expressed confidence that TVET education will soon take its rightful place in the country’s educational and development agenda.
“Going around we have seen significant infrastructure investment in the Technical and Vocational education subsector. Given this pathway, we are likely to see a significant transformation in our economy.
“When we went to Takoradi Technical University we saw an oil simulation equipment that demonstrates processes engineers go through to get the final product in drilling oil offshore. The people who are being trained are having direct access to what will happen if they find themselves in the oil and gas job market”.
Dr Prince Hamid Armah
Describing it as “remarkable”, Dr Armah further maintained that “this clearly shows we are linking the skills we are developing to the world of market”.
TVET education for smart students
Additionally, Dr Armah bemoaned the fact that in recent years TVET education has seemingly been couched for the dropouts or academically weak students.
That notwithstanding, he advocated that advancement in technology, technical equipment and innovation demands that people with high qualifying grades should consider education under TVET.
“That is how we can shift the paradigm towards TVET education”.
Dr Prince Hamid Armah
Following this, Dr Armah called for a reorientation of parents and students on the need for TVET education.
To achieve this, he averred that government is equally trying to ensure a “parity of esteem” between grammar type schools and TVET schools.
According to him, this will be achieved through policy reforms and the provision of equal proportion of funding.
“When TVET are located in schools that are not supposedly privileged schools, people do not want to study there. They want to study at Mfantsipim because it has a name. This is a result of the structure of our education.
“Across the world, the best practice is that TVET is positioned in such a way that they enjoy a parity of esteem with the grammar type and that is exactly what we are doing here in Ghana”.
Dr Prince Hamid Armah
Introduction of TVET service to coordinate activities of TVET
Touching on the introduction of TVET service, Dr Armah explained that the service is envisioned to aptly coordinate all activities of TVET and pre-tertiary level.
He further cited the Ghana job and skills and voucher projects, a multimillion-dollar investment projects as being available to help finance people with technical and vocational skills and expertise including master craftsmen.
Also, he urged the youth to take advantage of these opportunities to help stimulate the economy and country’s development.
Dr Armah, who was also the former Director General of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) further revealed that government has no plans of excluding people with disabilities behind.
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