What is technical education?
Governments since independence have been concerned about technical education and have done their bit to promote it. But the general feeling is that our institutions are not providing the appropriate technical education. It is even believed in some high circles that if our students are equipped with the appropriate technical education they will create their own jobs on leaving our schools and colleges. Youth and adult unemployment is therefore blamed on our educational institutions while parents are angry when their children are recommended for technical or vocational schooling!
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We should therefore stop and think seriously about what we mean by technical education and provide the resources to promote it while we create the atmosphere to make it attractive.
A little excursion into history should be rewarding. The colonial administration was run by a small group of graduates in the classics, history and the like. They were confident and generally believed in their mission. Colonial rule was said to be training us to rule ourselves. We had to train to take over from the ruling elite. And so we learnt to be graduates versed in literature and the classics as the colonial ruling class.
But to exploit the resources of the country for the economic benefit of the metropolitan power and for the progress of the indigenous people workers by hand and brains were required. Such workers were therefore brought in and they helped to train the local people. But the major training in technical expertise was provided by the missionaries, especially those with the Presbyterian or Swiss persuasion.
The government recognised the need for more technical men and opened Trade schools at Kibi and Asuantsi. Graduates from these institutions proved their worth but the main aim of the youth was to obtain secondary education and eventually occupy some of the positions of the administrative overlords. Meanwhile, the indigenous people realised that learning Latin and Greek will not help much to develop the country. And a few expatriates thought likewise but they were not taken seriously since some believed that they did not want Africans to qualify to take over their jobs.
It took a colonial governor of rare insight to conceive of that education which does not separate the head from the hands and which strongly promotes human values. Sir Gordon Guggisberg was a soldier and engineer who believed in holistic education. He built the Achimota College to educate the indigenous people to study from kindergarten to university level. And technical education was to be emphasised in the secondary school curriculum. An engineering school was envisaged. Fraser and Aggrey helped to realise his aims. An important requirement was equal education for boys and girls.
Guggisberg’s vision required a big land for realisation. Today, the greedy, even in high places think the school compound is too huge and are perjuring and corrupting themselves through illegal plundering of Achimota College lands.
Those who run our educational system should know something of the history of education in this country. They should know how colleges such as Mfantsipim, Adisadel, and Wesley Girls High School were established. They should know about how Achimota College became innovative and promoted holistic education.
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Even some old Achimotans do not know that there was an Engineering School at Achimota. Achimota Students took the London University BSc. Degree at the college. The first graduate was R.P. Baffour, who became Vice-Chancellor of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology at Kumasi. Ghanaians should therefore be proud that they helped to establish the basis for good technical education. The idea of technical education was promoted admirably at Achimota, where it formed part of both the secondary and teacher training curriculums. There were lessons in carpentry, sculpturing and art, tin plating, car repairing and so on. Students washed their clothes and ironed them with charcoal-filled box irons. Students were encouraged to be proud to work with their hands and clear dirty surroundings. Above all, service to those not fortunate to have the benefit of education was encouraged. The moral values were subtly but firmly promoted.
That suggestion is not that we should go completely the Achimota way. We should, however, not ignore history and take for granted why Achimota, Mfantsipim and the other much-sought-after schools succeeded. Achimota, for example, had the resources and the freedom to experiment and build an institution where all were equal and students from Gambaga to Accra, and from Wiawso to Keta regarded the school as the mother.
I did not take an entrance examination to go to Achimota. The selection or admission process would not be approved by many today. But it did produce the desired results. Much depended upon the commitment and industry of the staff and the leadership of the principal and headmaster.
We do need an Education Service to look after our schools today. But all the schools cannot be the same and the people who know naturally want their children and wards to go to the best schools. And the central education administration cannot satisfy all through computers and petty corruption. We must allow the leading schools to flourish while others are helped to rise to the top. The history of education elsewhere suggests this to be the way. We need schools of innovation to turn out graduates who are not technically ignorant or incompetent. This requires committed and competent Principals, Headmasters and Headmistresses and devoted Board of Directors.
The Frasers, Aggreys, Stopfords, Bartels and Osaes are not produced every day. We should encourage the emerging ones to develop. Meanwhile technical education should be promoted in secondary schools as the Rawlings Administration tried to do with the JSS 1dea. The system was unpopular for many reasons and the attitude of the leadership of the Education Service did not help.
I was then Secretary for Education and I must take the blame for the failures of the scheme. We should however learn from what happened and try to inculcate rudiments of technical education into our secondary schools which should be appropriately resourced while what is taught takes cognizance of the industries and services we have developed and are developing.