Mahama’s TVET plans dead on arrival - Ministry of Education

The Ministry of Education (MoE) has rubbished the plans announced by former President John Dramani Mahama to transform Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) on his second coming.

Mr Mahama had said in a Facebook Live transmission on Monday, 23 December 2019, among several promises that one of the things he is considering “with our policy team is to make TVET education free…not just from the tertiary level” if he wins the 2020 presidential polls.

However, the Ministry explained at a press conference that TVET is currently a priority of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the plans announced by Mr Mahama have already been implemented or under various levels of being rolled out.

Below is a full release from the ministry addressing Mr Mahama’s comments

RESPONSES TO STATEMENTS MADE BY MAHAMA

Introduction

The Government through the 1992 Constitution recognizes its responsibility of ensuring that every Ghanaian child has a right to education and training to the level and extent possible within the resources of the nation. Education and training as we all know, play a major role in employment. Knowing the skills needs of industry is very critical to the growth and development of the various sectors of the economy and the levels of capacities at which they can operate. The issue of the relevance of TVET and Skills development in Ghana to the economy has been a major concern to a lot of leaders and industrialists who believe that there exist myriads of job opportunities in industry and therefore calling for the required trained skilled expertise to fill them is very important.

The government of the day has re-emphasized the importance of TVET and skills and has anchored its key strategies around it to create employment for the youth in Ghana. In doing this the government has invested heavily in the TVET sector. For just the items below the government is spending over 500million Euros.

• AVIC: 119 million Euros

• Construction of State-of-the-Art TVET Institutions: 478 million Dollars. This was captured in the 2020 budget and it has received Parliamentary approval for the Master framework agreement. The EPC contracts have been done and approval for phase one received. The project will cover all the regions in Ghana.

• Upgrading of the NVTIs and two foundries are USD131,657,198.00. The contract agreement between the consortium and the Government of Ghana was signed on the 5th of July, 2018.

• Delorenzo 10,277,192.54

Below are responses to the statements made by Mahama

1. Statement: Make TVET a priority.

Response:

Government has already made it a priority and has anchored some of its strategies on Skills and TVET that is why it is upgrading all NVTIs, re-tooling the workshops in the Technical Universities and constructing 32 State of the Art TVET institutions across all the regions of Ghana.

The statement made here is like attempting to copy or repeat what is already being done.

2. Statement: Continue with the on-going DSIP.

Response:

DSIP has successfully been implemented and it is ending this year. But beyond DSIP Government has committed a lot of funds to the TVET sector.

Currently, AVIC International of China and VACE of Austria are building and upgrading training workshops for all 8 Technical Universities, 2 Polytechnics and seventeen (17) Technical and Vocational Institutes under GES.

Planet Core is expanding and upgrading 35 TVET institutions (NVTI, OIC) and establishing 2 new foundry and machining centres in Kumasi and Accra. This investment alone is 119million Euros the equivalent of Six Hundred and Forty-Two Million and Six Hundred Thousand Ghana cedis (GHC 642.600, 000.00). This alone is more than the total budgetary allocation to the TVET sector in 2014, which was GHC 243,962,422, representing 3.7% of the total MoE budget. In fact, the 2014 allocation is the highest allocation from 2013 to 2016. (Source: Education Sector Performance Report (2015))

3. Statement: Appoint a Deputy Minister for TVET

Response: There is currently a Deputy Minister for TVET at the Ministry of Education so this is something that is already happening.

4. Statement: Realign TVET Institutions to MoE

Response: Again, the realignment of all TVET Institutions to the Ministry of Education has started and has progressed steadily. All key stakeholders have been consulted and the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education has engaged them severally on the bills that will facilitate or ensure the effective implementation of the realignment. The bills when enacted will ensure effective coordination, regulation, harmonization, standard and improved quality of instruction in TVET delivery and the sector.

Therefore, the realignment is on-going and it is a core part of the Five-Year Strategic Plan for TVET Transformation. All the realigned TVET institutions will be managed by the TVET Service which will start work with the passage of the bills by Parliament.

5. Statement: Implement the Ghana TVET Voucher Project. (GTVP)

Response:

The Ghana TVET Voucher Project is currently being implemented.

It started in Greater Accra, Ashanti, Northern, Savanna, North East, Oti and Volta Regions and it has now been extended to Eastern, Western, Western North and Central Regions. Some demand-driven programmes have also been added and these are Plumbing, Furniture Making, Electrical Installation, Block laying and tiling; Catering and hospitality.

This has really been appreciated by our friends in the informal sector and it is going to be expanded to cover all the regions in Ghana. Currently, close to 10,000 youth have benefited from the programme.

6. Statement: Revamp Technical Universities and Polytechnics to make them function as expected.

Response: The revamping of the Technical Universities and Polytechnics has already received the attention of this Government. All the Technical Universities and Polytechnics have been provided with State-of-the-Art laboratories and workshops with equipment supplied by Amatrol Inc. These are equipment that meets industry 4.0 standards. Associated with this is the re-training of the lecturers and facilitators through training of trainers (TOT) sessions.

These will lead to:

• Enhanced training solutions and systems integration for Engineering, Science and Technology Applications in education, training and industrial environments;

• Provision of training equipment and spare parts;

• Provision of new curricula and training for staff of the beneficiary institutions.

One major benefit of this equipment is that it uses real-world industrial quality components to help students become better prepared for what they will encounter on the job with industry-relevant skills that make them ready for the job market. Each equipment has topics that incorporate the skill development needed for modern industry. From operation to complex troubleshooting. This is what is required to boost Technical and Vocational Skills for the 21st Century to tackle challenges presented by the 4th industrial revolution, which requires tailor-made solutions that is adaptable countrywide.

The AVIC Project is currently continuing with the upgrading of the facilities and the TOT sessions

7. Statement: Continue with phase two of the SDF.

Response: Phase two of the SDF is on-going and has not been halted. It has government participation. Government has now designed phase three which will be Private Sector led and cover approximately 700 businesses. This is the scale we are looking at and not 120 as mentioned in their statement. This has the potential of opening up a lot of socio-economic opportunities to absorb an estimated 25,000 youth not to talk of its multiplier effect.

Statement: Make TVET attractive and not a place for dropouts

Response: TVET can no longer be considered as a place for dropouts considering the lift, energy and resources that the Government of the day has introduced into it. To address these concerns, a Strategic Plan for TVET Transformation was developed and approved by Cabinet and it is being implemented. In this strategic is the MyTVET Campaign which has been launched and already bearing fruits.

This campaign covers all aspects of the world of work and society. The zonal and national skills competitions that were organized alone, caught up with a lot of the youth especially after some of the competitors were sponsored to participate in the World Skills Africa Competition in Kigali and came back with awards. Ghana won Gold, Silver and Bronze in different categories. This means that our students have the talent and skill set which if honed can lead to national development.

Through these campaigns, some of the winners were sent to Italy to train in Mechatronics and they are now back in Ghana leading the development of robotic arms to train other youth. Alongside this is the implementation of the Career Guidance and Counselling programme emphasizing the importance of skills and TVET at the Basic Education level.

Ghana is now a member of the WorldSkills International and this provides that youth to participate in the international and showcase to the whole world what Ghanaian youth has to offer.

It is important to state that TVET has never been given so much prominence in Ghana than now, where TVET is now seen as the preferred option to general academic education.

SUMMARY OF INVESTMENTS

• AVIC: 119 million Euros

• Construction of State-of-the-Art TVET Institutions: 478 million Dollars. This was captured in the 2020 budget and it has received Parliamentary approval for the Master framework agreement. The EPC contracts have been done and approval for phase one received. The project will cover all the regions in Ghana.

• Upgrading of the NVTIs and two foundries are USD131,657,198.00. The contract agreement between the consortium and the Government of Ghana was signed on the 5th of July, 2018.

• Delorenzo 10,277,192.54