GES boss urges students to embrace TVET education

The Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GHS), Professor Kwasi Opoku Amankwa, has asked students to consider Technical , Vocational Education and Training (TVET) schools when selecting schools for Senior High School (SHS) Education.

Over the years, the TVET sector has suffered an image crisis over a public perception of being the refuge of students who are not academically endowed.

It has been argued that obsolete machinery, a fragmented TVET landscape, an outdated curriculum, a lack of standardisation, duplication of roles amongst agencies and poor investment have rendered the sector helpless.

Speaking on Atinka FM’s AM Drive with host Ekourba Gyasi, Professor Kwasi Opoku Amankwa said TVET is key to the country’s industrialization agenda as it provides the manpower for practical skills necessary for its industrial drive.

Citing governments’s One District, One Factory initiative, Professor Kwasi Opoku Amankwa said TVET education will aid the initiative.

“ When you ask parents the profession they would want their kids to venture into, they give examples like engineering, forgetting that it falls under the TVET. It’s high time parents encouraged their wards to accept TVET education. Most of the courses these students read at tertiary institutions especially KNUST are TVET related”, he explained.

He added that the Ghana Education Service has asked that students select a school in the TVET category in addition to the senior high schools.

Asked whether or not a student who selects a TVET school during the school selection process will be automatically placed there, The Director General Ghana Education Service (GHS), Professor Kwasi Opoku Amankwa explained that it would depend on the programme and schools selected by the student.