Place more value on technical education - Prof Akosa

Professor Agyemang Badu-Akosa, former Director General of the Ghana Health Service, has underlined the need to place more value on vocational and technical education to help tackle the soaring unemployment.

This, he said should be done alongside aggressive training in information and communication technology (ICT).

He said that was the path to travel to provide the youth with skills that would make them employable and competitive on the job market.

He was addressing the 66th speech and prize-giving day of the Prempeh College – an all-boys senior high school (SHS) in Kumasi.

“Holistic SHS education, a prerequisite for national development” was the theme for the event.

Prof Badu-Akosa, himself an old student of the school, said it was important to focus on the development of the nation’s human resource – its best asset, by strengthening the education system.

He said everything must be done to ensure that there was quality to aid students to be logical and analytical in their thinking.

Mr. Emmanuel Kwabena Yeboah, the Headmaster, said the school had continued to show strong academic performance, scoring 100 per cent pass in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

The students and their teachers were determined to maintain the tradition of academic excellence to make it the preferred choice among students across the nation.

He complained about the bad state of the school’s science laboratory and said every effort would be made to refurbish it.

On-going projects to provide space for academic work and other activities include an 18-unit classroom block and an assembly hall with a seating capacity for 2,500 people.

He saluted past students of the school for providing it with a borehole, rehabilitation of the Osae Assembly Hall and pantry, the construction of two semi-detached and three-bedroom bungalows for the staff.

Added to these is their funding of a solar project, he added.

Oheneba Adusei-Poku, the Akyempimhene, hailed the school for the excelling in the WASSCE and placing first in the recent National Science and Mathematics Quiz.