30% Workers Have Not Been to School

Review of educational system should look at Technical, Vocational Education and Training - says President's Committee on Education

About thirty percent of the work force engaged in production in the country, have never stepped in the classroom. According to the findings of the President's Committee of Education Reforms in Ghana, only five percent of workers have had training at secondary or higher level.

In its 262 Report- Meeting the Challenges of Education in the Twenty-First Century, the 30-man committee headed by Prof Jophus Anamuah-Mensah, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba, said: "This situation is most unhealthy for a developing country like ours, which needs a large stock of human capital for economic growth."

The committee established that only 1.6 percent of the total educated force in Ghana has some basic qualification in vocational and technical education. In essence, this nation is trying to build a technological society depending on grammar scholars.

"Statistics also shows that of a batch of JSS leavers only about five percent will have access to tertiary institutions. About 60 percent exit the mainstream after JSS 3."

The committee established that one of the most serious deficiencies in the education system in the country is the neglect of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sub-sector. "The reforms introduced in 1987 completely ignored the technical and vocational institutes. The introduction of technical and vocational subjects in the mainstream of the educational system was the consideration. This consideration has neither improved access nor made any real impact on the formation of the direly needed human capital for economic growth and national development," the committee observed.

The committee established for instance, that while there are as many as 474 Senior Secondary Schools under the Ministry of Education, there are only 23 state-sponsored Technical Institutes and 29 Vocational Institutes.

Of the 23 Technical Institutions only six are adequately equipped to function relatively satisfactorily "despite their many problems arising out of neglect and inadequate funding." The others are in various stages of neglect with respect to educational and training infrastructure, equipment, staffing and funding.

The committee was disappointed to discover that only one percent of the educational budget of the Ministry of Education is allocated to the Techncial, Vocational Education Training (TVET) sub-sector for quite some time now.