SPEECH DELIVERED BY PROF. J. ANAMUAH-MENSAH, VICE
CHANCELLOR, UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA ON THE
THEME “SECONDARY TECHNICAL EDUCATION, AN EFFECTIVE
LINK IN THE MIDDLE LEVEL MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT OF A
NATION”, AT THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF ST.
FRANCIS SECONDARY TECHNICAL SCHOOL AKIM-ODA, 23RD
JUNE, 2007
Your Excellency, President of the Republic of Ghana
Hon. Eastern Regional Minister
Chairperson,
Hon Member of Parliament for Akim-Oda,
District Chief Executive,
Board of Governors,
Head Master and staff,
PTA Executives,
Distinguished invited guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am happy to join you today as the Guest speaker on the occasion of the Silver
Jubilee celebration of the St. Francis Secondary Technical School. I will like
to express my gratitude to the Head Master of the school, the Board of
Governors and the Anniversary committee for this invitation. The invitation for me
to attend this celebration came to me at short notice but I decided to accept it
because I see schools like ST Francis Secondary Technical School to be at the
centre of Ghana’s transformational process. Indeed schools like yours are at the
heart of the current education reform, which is due to take off in September,
2007.
On an occasion like this, Mr. Chairman, marking the 25th anniversary of the
founding of the St Francis Secondary Technical School, it is the heartfelt
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desire of all of us gathered here to wish the school a happy birthday and to hope
that with each anniversary, the school will pursue its objective of turning out well
educated and disciplined citizens who will play prominent roles in the socioeconomic, cultural and political development of our dear nation. I do also take
note of the fact that your school is one of the few secondary technical schools in
the country which provide combined programmes in technical and general
education.
The first few years in the life of an institution is critical to its later development, so
my hope is that no stone will be left unturned in providing the necessary nutrition
needed to build up the school into a mature, vibrant and world class institution
that offers the best secondary education for Ghanaians. Please accept my
congratulations. With the current on-going decentralization process, the support
needed to build the school up will have to come from the district assembly, the
Government and the PTA.
Mr. Chairman, Celebrations like this are also occasions for remembering and
saluting the founders and the dedicated teachers and head teacher who in
diverse ways have committed themselves to nurturing and shaping the young
minds entrusted to them so as to make them useful citizens. I believe, it is also in
recognition of the contributions of these illustrious teachers that we are today
celebrating this event. Permit me Mr. Chair to use this opportunity to congratulate
them, the old and current, ancient and modern. In particular, I will like to mention
the late Rev. Francis Beemsterboer, whose vision for the development of the
youth in this area resulted in the establishment of the school, the past
headmasters, Messrs. S. K. Amakyi, M. K. Dzata, Kandiah Arumugam and
Anomah Bempong I also believe that this occasion offers the leaders of the
school the opportunity to take stock of the activities of the school to determine
how far the vision, mission and core values of the school are being attained.
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The theme for your anniversary is ‘Secondary Technical Education: An
Effective Link in the Middle Level Manpower Development of a Nation. I do
not know the thoughts that went into the selection of this theme, but I find the
theme both timely and very challenging. It is timely because in three month’s time
the new education reform, which places emphasis on technical/vocational
education and training will take off. It is challenging because the shift in emphasis
from the prevailing grammar-type of education involves a change in mentality, a
change in paradigm or conceptual switch in our thinking about education.
Parents will be required to change their current negative attitude towards
vocational/technical education; the government will be required to show its
commitment to this shift by increasing its support to TVET. Here, I will like to note
that at the recent National Education Sector Annual Review Meeting in Accra, it
was revealed that the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports had increased
its funding allocation to TVET from 1.1% to 2.4%.
Mr. Chairman, In this presentation, I shall try to take a brief look at the following
issues:

Human resource development

The new education reform

Constraints to quality secondary/Technical education

Suggestions for Improvement

Conclusion
Human resource Development
It is generally accepted that development depends more on a knowledge-based
economic system than the possession of untapped raw materials and energy
sources. It is said that this is true only if the country under consideration has
achieved a certain level of technological development. We may ask ourselves if
we have reached the threshold required for harnessing knowledge for
development. We are aware of the acute lack of technical manpower with
relevant skills in the economy even though this is a requirement for economic
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growth. We need to develop this base first through a well designed
technical/vocational education and training system. At the moment, the small and
medium scale businesses at Kokompe, fitting shops and many other areas
provide a home for technical training for certain groups of people with limited
theoretical background and therefore have limited impact. Few middle level
technicians are trained in formal educational institutions. There is a need
therefore to train more qualified middle level personnel with appropriate skills to
propel the economy forward. The backbone (link) to the development of this
resource is education and specifically, technical and vocational training which is
offered through the school system. Secondary education is the starting point for
the development of this technical competencies, which is later perfected at the
polytechnic or university. It is therefore apparent that technical/vocational
education is the one sector that should be given the highest priority attention. It is
not an exaggeration to state that on it depends our economic prosperity as a
nation. However, it is only possible if there is a total and sustained commitment
by all stakeholders to achieve this goal.
The New Education Reform
The current global and internal challenges have made it imperative for Ghana to
transform its educational system in order to be competitive in the global market
place, to produce graduates of the school system who can play crucial roles in
the development of the nation and close the great divide between us and other
countries. Some of the challenges include the phenomenal increase in
knowledge, especially science and technology; the marriage between information
and telecommunications which is propelling global economy; increasing role of
human capital for industrial growth and global competitiveness; the radical
transformation in the field of work and employment, threat to cultural identity and
national sovereignty, and meeting the Millennium Development Goals and
Education for All goals .
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The new education reform is an urgent call for us to wake up from our slumber
and complacency. We tend to rely on age-old achievements and think that is
sufficient. Whiles nations like South Korea, Malaysia and India were moving it
seems that for decades, we have been at best stationary but really moving
backwards.
The reform is intended to produce human resource for every sector of the
economy and to make all citizens literate and skilled to contribute to the total
growth of the nation. It is a known fact that majority of 15 year olds end their
education at the end of junior secondary school with little or no skills to enable
them earn a decent livelihood. The reform will provide opportunity for stop such
wastage. It is a long-term education development plan of the country. The reform
at the pre-tertiary level has a 2-year kindergarten added to the 6-year primary
education, a 3-year junior high school and a 4-year senior high school.
It
includes an apprenticeship system and a built-in flexibility to allow for the re-entry
of people who, for one reason or another terminate their education. Since your
institution is a second cycle one, I will concentrate my talk on the 4-year senior
high school.
The reform proposes a second cycle education made up of a junior high and
senior high schools. In the senior high school, a diversified curriculum will be
provided to “cater for the different aptitudes, abilities, interests and skills of
students, provide some with the opportunity for further education and training and
introduce others to a wide variety of relevant occupational skills.” To achieve this
the present ill-defined, disjointed and uncoordinated post-basic system will be restructured into a high school education consisting of a parallel stream of general
education, technical education, vocational education and agricultural education.
A common thread in all the streams is that mathematics, general science,
English, and social studies are compulsory subjects.
Constraints to the delivery of quality TVET
Inadequate supply of technical teachers
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We have an acute shortage of teachers in the technical areas in the technical
institutes and secondary/technical schools. Those already in the teaching field
move out of teaching as soon as they find more attractive job openings.
Inadequate funding
The poor level of funding of technical/ vocational education has resulted in lack of
well-equipped laboratories and workshops in the schools. A visit to some schools
with technical orientation reveals a number of obsolete and damaged equipment
which act as museum pieces. In paces where the workshops are well equipped,
unavailability of consumables for workshop practice creates a problem.
Lack of funding has made it impossible for most technical institutions like yours
to run effective science and engineering courses, thereby creating the condition
for prospective students to shift to other programmes. This is reflected in the
increasing number of students who enrol in non-technical based courses
compared to enrollment in the general education programmes, that is general
arts and general science. The current enrollment in general education and
technical education is in the ratio of 96:4. With only 23 technical institutes and
478 public secondary schools, it will take a massive shake up to reach a ratio of
50:50.
Social appraisal of TVET
Technical vocational education is unfortunately has a low esteem among both
individuals and general society. Many parents do not want to send their children
to enrol in technical programmes except when they are not able to secure
admission into general education programmes. This is an apparently disturbing
trend as the nation requires an average of almost four technicians/technologists
for every engineer.
Student industrial work experience scheme
In order to strengthen the practical content of technology education and introduce
students to the world of work during the course of their training, the student
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should be engaged in industrial work experience.
This experience is vital to the effective TVET delivery and the training of
technologists and other middle level human resource for the country. It calls for a
collaboration between industry and schools, where industry contributes to the
formulation of the curriculum, provision of opportunity for both students and
teachers to spent some time in industry, and for industry to assist in teaching.
Suggestions for Improvement
How can TVET be designed to produce the required human resources for the
country’s development? The success of technical/vocational education depends
largely on:
 “addressing non-TVET issues and problems such as quality of general
education, investment in physical and human resources and macroeconomic policies; and
 good TVET policies that ensure responsiveness to labour market demands
and build and maintain support for implementation of good policy reform.”
Specifically, the following considerations should be made if secondary/technical
education is to serve as the link to quality human resource development:
 President’s assent to the COTVET policy document , which was passed by
parliament recently to provide policy direction for TVET in the country.
 Increasing resource allocation to technical/vocational schools and
rehabilitate existing institutions. This should cover the upgrading of all
technical and vocational oriented schools including your institution;
 The links between TVET institutions and Business/Industry should
be strengthened. TVET institutions should take the initiative in this
regard and Government should support such initiatives.
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 In view of the fact that technical teachers for secondary schools are trained
mainly at the College of Technology Education and College of Agriculture
Education of the University of Education, Winneba, a systematic strategy
should be put in place to expand and equip them to cater for the training of
more technical and vocational teachers;
Conclusion
It has been established that the evolving needs of the work place poses
challenges which demand the acquisition of both technical and social skills in
order to cope with them.
Education and training programmes that respond adequately to these demands
will contribute to efforts to overcome the growing unemployment and
marginalization of young people and adults in the country.
By providing access to learning experiences designed to broaden the acquisition
of skills, TVET programmes can increase productivity and significantly improve
the fortunes of the unemployed and youths in particular. Our failure to meet these
demands is reflected in the large numbers of , about 60% who exit the JSS with
no skills.
The Experience South Korea went through to reach the current state is a lesson
we can learn from.
“In 1990 the Korean Government adopted a policy of increasing enrolment in
vocational senior secondary schools, aiming at a ratio increase between general
and vocational senior secondary schools from 68:32 to 50:50 by 1995. By 1997
there were 771 technical and vocational senior secondary schools with a total
enrolment of 960,037, thus accounting for 40 per cent of total enrolemnt at senior
secondary school level. In this same year, unemployment stood at 2.6 per cent.”
Once again, I will like to thank the school for the invitation.
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May God continue to shower His blessings on the school.
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