TVET can catalyse development

Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) has been used by countries for economic, social and environmental development. In Ghana, the various educational acts and reforms have, over the years, emphasised the need for strong and functional technical and vocational education in the country.

For instance, in the Dzobo Committee Report of 1974, a strong case was made for effective functional technical and vocational education in the country. It was, however, not implemented until 1988 when the then government took the bold decision to see to its execution.

The aim then was to ensure that products from our first-cycle institutions came out with vocational and technical skills that would make them self-employed. But that laudable goal could not be achieved due mainly to the capital-intensive nature of TVET.

This contributed to the rate of unemployment hitting alarming proportions, leading to the formation of the Unemployed Graduates Association and picketing by graduates from our various institutions at the ministries and even the seat of government.

The unemployment scourge has, no doubt, created a time bomb that could explode anytime if pragmatic measures are not taken to deal with it decisively.

Countries such as the United Kingdom (UK) have gone through a similar phase of neglect of TVET, such that at a period when the country was in dire need of artisans such as carpenters, masons and electricians, these categories of professionals had to be brought from other European countries.

The importance of TVET to the development of countries cannot be overemphasised: France, India, Germany, the US, Russia, Korea, among a host of developed nations, have introduced rigorous functional TVET regimes that have enhanced their development.

The announcement by a Deputy Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, during a discussion programme on an Accra-based television a couple of weeks ago, that all institutions relating to TVET were to be brought under a new directorate of the Ghana Education Service must gladden our hearts.

As a country, we cannot continue doing the same thing and expect different results. One of our best bets is to strengthen our TVET sector and see it as an investment, not cost, so that, as others have done, we too can use TVET to increase productivity, enhance economic growth and leverage our international competitiveness.

We must create the enabling environment for TVET to play its role effectively in our development drive. We should be able to give incentives such as tax holidays and waiver of duties on items imported for the establishment of technical and vocational schools. This becomes more imperative because we seem to have neglected TVET institutions in favour of those that offer purely academic education, with little or no practical training.

The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, in Sunyani over the weekend, expressed worry over the fact that universities in the country had, for some time now, drifted out from Science, Technology and Mathematics to the Humanities, adding: “For a country to develop in this age, there is the need to put emphasis on Science, Mathematics and Technology.”

Relatedly, the Education Minister has hinted that the technical universities will have to shift from 60 per cent to 90 per cent of technical and vocational programmes.
The Daily Graphic is hopeful that these sentiments would arouse in our current leaders the urge to ensure adequate investment in the TVET sector to further accelerate the development of the country.