Technical,Vocational skills very important (29/6/09)

THE Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Samuel Bannerman-Mensah, has urged Ghanaians to discard the notion that technical and vocational education is for students who do not perform well at the basic school level.
“Technical and vocational skills education play very important role in our everyday lives, without which life would be very difficult, as daily activities revolve around them,” he added.
Mr Bannerman-Mensah made the remarks when he commissioned an IT hardware centre at the closing ceremony of the Computer System Support Programme (CSSP) at the Accra Technical Training Centre (ATTC) in Accra.
The CSSP was a two-week training programme organised by the Technical and Vocational Education Division (TVED) of the GES for 10 technical skills teachers from selected technical institutions to acquire computer hardware and maintenance skills.
Mr Bannerman-Mensah, therefore, advised that students who had interest in technical and vocational skills education should be encouraged to take up the course as it would empower them economically and also contribute to national development.
He said the training centre would ensure availability of regular training materials to students undergoing the training.
Mr Bannerman-Mensah noted that similar centres would be set up in other regions which would provide maintenance and repair services to all schools with computers.
He also expressed his profound gratitude to UNESCO for sponsoring the programme.
For his part, the Principal of the ATTC, Mr Ameyaw-Baafi, also expressed his sincere gratitude to the TVED for instituting the programme, and assured Ghanaians that ATTC would maintain the tools and equipment at the centre.
“We will train and produce quality technicians for the socio-economic development of the country,” he added.
Mr Ameyaw-Baafi appealed to the government to allocate more funds to the TVED to sustain the programme.