Botoku Technical Institute calls for TVET’s intervention to prevent collapse

Students, staff, chiefs and people of the Botoku community, near Vakpo in the North Dayi District of the Volta Region, have made a passionate appeal to the management of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and the Ministry of Education (MoE) to urgently come to the aid of the Botoku Technical Institute before it collapses.

Students from other beneficiary communities such as Vakpo, Have, Wusuta and Trukpe, among others, attended Botoku Technical Institute when it was doing well. 

However, some of the students from the neighbouring communities stopped and relocated to schools like Vakpo and Anfoega, where conditions are better.    

The school community also appealed to the management of TVET and MoE to replace the Principal of the Institute, Edem Asong, who they alleged had vacated his post, with his absence negatively affecting the entire school. 

Briefing the media in the school last week Friday, a retired educationist and acting caretaker Principal of the school, Victor Abotsi, said the school was established in the 1993/1994 academic year by the Botoku community as an Integrated Community Centre for Employable Skills (ICCES), a non-formal programme of the Social Welfare Department. 

The school, he said, collapsed and was reopened in the 2016/2017 academic year, with Edem Asong as the principal and the only teacher on the government payroll, as well as eight other volunteer teachers on allowances from the community, under the supervision of the Volta Regional Directorate of TVET.

Courses 

The school currently offers programmes such as Building Construction Technology, Wood Construction Technology, Electrical Engineering Technology, Fashion Design Technology, Hospitality and Catering Management and Cosmetology (Hairdressing).

Mr Abotsi said even though the school was recognised under TVET supervision, no attention had been paid to it in terms of accommodation facilities for both students and teachers, as well as teaching and learning materials such as woodwork tools, sewing machines, cooking stoves and fridges, among others, which made teaching and learning ineffective, as is the case in other well-established technical institutes in the country.

He stressed the need for the employment of qualified staff to impact the students’ learning, as the principal was the only qualified staff, while the eight other teachers were not professionally qualified but were employed out of necessity to hold the fort.

“The vision of the community in establishing the school is to make it one of the best technical schools not only in the Volta Region but in Ghana as a whole. 

“We have enough land that can take care of infrastructure development needs. In the same way, we have a serene environment for effective teaching and learning. 

“TVET should give us qualified teachers who will professionally handle all the courses in the school.

The community employed volunteer teachers who are on allowances from a community member, Prof. Komla Tsey, which is not sustainable because the man is on retirement now and can’t continue with the payment of the allowances anymore,” Mr Abotsi emphasised.

He said due to the poor condition of the school, the enrolment of 49 students some time ago had dwindled to 31 at the time of the media engagement and was likely to decrease further.

He said, for instance, that this academic year, only four students were admitted due to the absence of the substantive principal of the school.

Community unhappy

A retired District Director of Education from the Botoku Community, Samuel Joy Darko, and Florence Geni, also from the community, told the media that no community member was happy about the situation in the school, especially where it had to do with poor management since 2016 when Edem Asong took over as the principal.

“We are not very happy with the current state of the school. Even though the school is in the town to benefit those who want technical education, some parents have to spend so much by sending their children to Vakpo, which is 15 kilometres from here. 

“We are pleading with TVET and, for that matter, the government, to help restore the school to serve the technical educational needs of those who want it,” they pleaded.

A first-year student, Christian Andy Adaromah, who intends to become an automotive engineer in future, said he had regretted his admission to the school due to its poor state. 

He said even though he was a few weeks old in the school, he sometimes felt so sorry that he hid himself and wept, wishing his parents relocated him elsewhere.

Allegation 

When the Daily Graphic contacted Mr Asong on the phone, he denied the allegation of having vacated his post as the community members claimed. 

He explained that he was pursuing a course at the Ho Technical University while still heading the school, which the community members, as well the Volta Regional Directorate of TVET, were all aware of and, therefore, the allegation could not be substantiated.

He said for the few weeks that he was absent, he was writing his mid-semester examination, for which he obtained permission from the appropriate quarters, adding, “Some of the community members who might have interest in heading the school are creating their own issues.”

Mr Ansong showed the Daily Graphic a cover letter from the Volta Regional Director of TVET for the teachers to be put on regular salaries and not allowances from the community member, which he was working on in Accra, stating, “Even if I’m absent physically in the school, I’m administratively working for the school.”  

The Volta Regional Director of TVET, Christian Agordah, when contacted, said he was aware of the fact that the principal of the school, Mr Ansong, was pursuing a course at the Ho Technical University before he was even transferred to head the school.

On the state of the school, he said he was aware but the TVET had many schools that it could not satisfy all their needs and, therefore, there was the need for communities to partner with the TVET and the government to manage the TVET schools.