Vocational institute equip women with skills
ST Mary’s Vocational/Technical Institute at Adeemmra in the Kwahu Afram Plains North District in the Eastern Region, is encouraging women and girls in the community to take advantage of facilities at the institute to acquire skills to empower them to live meaningful lives.
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Established in 1999 by the Catholic Church, the institute helps women in the district, especially those who have never been to school or are school dropouts to acquire skills.
Enrolment drive
Managers of the school visit market places, churches and communities in both the north and south of the Afram Plains to encourage young girls to get enrolled in the school with enticing packages including full scholarships, free school uniform among others.
They also carry admission forms to junior high schools in the two districts and Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) centres during the final exams to encourage girls completing the JHS to enrol in the school.
Scholarship package
Currently, as over GH¢8,000 is paid by some donors and individuals to the school as school fees for a number of the students, while some get direct support from other individuals.
And even as the school is now a GES-approved vocational institute with its students writing the National Board for Professional and Technical Examination (NABPTEX), it still clinches to its core mandate of enrolling dropout girls and those who have never been to school but can express themselves to learn a skill.
Courses offered
The school runs courses in Fashion Designing,Hospitality & Catering, Textile and Secretarial as electives and the core subjects are made up of English Language, Mathematics, Social Studies and Integrated Science.
Taking the Daily Graphic through admission processes at the school premises, the acting Principal of the institute, Rev. Sister Elizabeth Biga, said the idea was to enable women and young ladies to get some skills to help themselves.
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She said as time went on, managers of the school realised that there was the need to offer the opportunity to those girls who would want to continue their education to the tertiary institutions by introducing the core subjects just like any other senior high school.
Proficiency course
Rev. Sister Biga explained that the school also ran proficiency courses in only the elective subjects, where the examination was entirely oral and mainly practical for those who could not read and write.
Population
“The problem is that girls in the community here and even in the district, do not like going to school. Imagine, the total population of the school currently is 58 and this is the highest for an academic year since I came here four years ago,” she lamented.
Rev. Sister Biga felt the location of the school was also affecting enrolment as parents would not like to allow their daughters to travel far to attend school, especially as they have to cross the river, which they did not like.
She said for instance that this academic year, 300 candidates were posted to the school under the Computerised School Selection Placement System (CSSPS) but only one student reported.
Appeal
Rev. Sister Biga expressed worry that there were a number of girls in the district who were not in school and also without any skills but were not taking advantage of the scholarship package the school offered to enable them to benefit from the training.
She said the school had boarding facilities and enough infrastructure, as well as qualified teachers to handle all the subjects and, therefore, appealed to parents to allow their daughters to acquire a skill to enable them live independent lives.
The Ag Principal also appealed to non-governmental organisations to use their influence to encourage girls in the operational zones to attend the school, “to at least learn something that will help them.”
Writer’s Email: severious.dery@graphic.com.gh