The runningmate of former President John Dramani Mahama contends the National Democratic Congress has the best blueprint for comprehensive technical education in Ghana.
According to Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang, the conversion of Polytechnics into Technical Universities under her watch as then Education Minister was part of a larger industrialization plan for Ghana.
Speaking on Abusua Nkomo on Kumasi based Abusua fm, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang pointed out that the NDC government undertook the most rigorous research and audit of the technical education infrastructure before rolling out the Technical University Program.
“We did a good technical audit of the schools, conducted a capacity audit of its staff and assessed a resource audit before sending it to parliament. It was not just drafted and sent to be accented,” She explained.
She pointed out that the bigger plan was to ensure that persons with technical acumen studied their technical courses from the basic through to high school to the tertiary level to be able to attract jobs in high earn businesses.
“It breaks my heart that when industries set up their factories, oil rakes et-cetera in Ghana, they had to go out to bring carpenters and welders from outside Ghana because our welders and carpenters did not have advanced knowledge in the very technical aspects of their work,” she stated.
She said the country was fashioning itself to model the German system where technical skills constituted the mainstay of their economies.
She told host Kojo Marfo, “If you go to Germany, the main stay of their economy is their technical skill. Importing tables will just employ persons transporting it but manufacturing it will involve a whole chain of processes that will employ several others.”
She indicated that the NDC will continue its technical education program which saw an upgrade of some 13 second cycle technical schools; build the capacities of technical education teachers, equip technical labs and provide all the resources that the technical schools will need to realize their full functionalities.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/ Ivan Heathcote – Fumador