Principal shares bungalow with students; appeals for more dorms

The Principal of the Community Vocational and Technical Institute (CDVTI) at Kpong in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality in the Eastern region, Felicia Mamaa Botchway, has been compelled to share her bungalow with female students.

The School is one of the 26 Institutions of the Department of Community Development under the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development established to provide Technical and Vocational Education training in the country,however, the Institute is facing serious infrastructural challenges which is affecting effective and efficient education delivery despite commitment by management and strides made over the years targeted at to make the Institute a Model School.

“A more worrying concern is that our boarding facility cannot accommodate over 100 students and they are not even owned by the school.The boy’s dormitory is a house given to the school by the community.The Girls dormitory is my bugalow and I have decided to share with girls because there is no place to house them.”

She said the school currently is also facing challenges with inadequate furniture and practical rooms despite an increase in enrollment which has increased the student population of the school to about 400.

“The School infrastructure is inadequate considering the School’s population and the number of trade programs on offer.The Classrooms are over stretched and there are no space in the rooms to facilitate movement when teaching. The trainees have outnumbered the furniture of the school and many of the trade programs do not have well built Practical rooms for active learning”.

The Principal of the Institute Felicia Mamaa Botchway said more investment is needed to expand the exiting facilities to help provide quality TVET education which is a game changer for Ghana’s development.

She said this in an interview with Starr News at the sidelines of the graduation for 100 students who have successfully completed training in various skill programs with NAPTEX and NVTI Certificates.Various handicrafts and prototype machines developed by students were exhibited to the amusement of their guests.

A Legal practitioner and a parliamentary hopeful for the Lower Manya Krobo, Benedicta Lasi, who was a guest speaker called for a deliberate policy drive to attract more youth into TVET to enable them acquire employable skills to curb the alarming rate of unemployment in the country.