Experts in Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) have criticized the government for unduly delaying the extension of the Free Education Policy to public TVET institutions considering its essential role in industrialization and employment creation.
President Akufo-Addo last year revealed TVET Institutions were to be enrolled onto the Free Education Policy. That, however, is yet to materialise. Parliament last week, however, approved some 123 million euro loan facility to finance the upgrading of 34 TVET institutions in Ghana.
The delay in enrolling TVET institutions onto the Policy being implemented since 2017 is discouraging many students particularly girls interested in Technical and Vocational Education from enroling into such institutions and are forced to opt for Senior High Schools.
The situation stakeholders say has affected enrollment and financial strength of the TVET institutions, most of them now on the verge of collapse.
This was made known in Koforidua during the Eastern Regional TVET Seminar organized by International Child Development Program (ICDP) in partnership with Plan International Ghana at the Hyundai-Koica Technical Institute owned by the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
The Eastern Regional Unit Manager of Plan International Ghana, Kofi Adade Debrah said, “Plan together with partners like ICDP, Hyudai Koica Motor Company…all of us together are now doing advocacy to influence government to look more into TVET to ensure that the lips service the government have been giving over time is fulfilled.
“We want the government to go a step further to give an equal opportunity that it has given to SHSs in terms of the Free SHS Policy to make it a reality also for TVET Institutions. We want the government to move away from tortoise-pace of doing things but rather give equal time and attention.”
The Eastern Regional Manager of Gratis Foundation, Isaac Osei Mensah, who doubles as the principal of the Hyundai-Koica Institute said the school established to provide competency-based technical training to the youth, with $1.2 million classroom facility and state of the art automotive technology practical centre have been recording very low enrolment due to its exclusion from the Free SHS Policy.
“The effect is that we don’t have enough students and we don’t have enough of the girls whom we want to enrol into our institutions,” he said.
The Country Director of ICDP, Joyce Dodzi Larnyo said the seminar was aimed at encouraging and empowering girls to enrol in technical and engineering courses to explore the opportunities therein.
A communique issued by 150 students mostly females from Hyundai-Koica Technical Institute, Liberty Specialist Institute and Universal School after the seminar and read by Ofori Darkoa Elizabeth stated that “the dwindling nature of enrolment figures into TVET Institutions is partly due to inadequate financing as against heavy financing of SHS. However, TVET courses are generally more expensive to pursue than other courses like Business, General Arts, and so on.
“We recommend that government should move beyond absorbing only the tuition fees at public TVET Schools to also cover the cost of training materials and include schools like Hyundai-Koica Institute to attract more female enrolment.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Kojo Ansah
