Gov’t to Appoint Director-General for Technical education

The Akufo-Addo Administration plans to create another Director-General position within the Ghana Education Service (GES) which will focus on technical and vocational education.

The Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo, said the plans were well-advanced to ensure that Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) was well managed.

This forms part of the government’s strategy for Technical and Vocational Education and Training in the country to help reduce the alarming unemployment rate in the country.

When appointed, this new Director will work alongside the current GES boss, Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa.

Mr. Osafo Maafo made this known at the 60th Anniversary Celebrations of the St Paul’s Technical School at Kukurantumi in the Eastern Region.

He also revealed that he was Chairing a Committee tasked to see to the restructuring of technical and vocational education in the country.

“We are going to have two Director-Generals; one specifically for TVET services and one for normal education services. So all matters related to technical vocational education will be handled under the Director-General for TVET services,” he explained.

This move is envisioned to shift the emphasis of education from the grammar system to vocational education, Mr. Osafo Maafo stated.

“We want to shift the emphasis to technical and vocational education. That clear absence of that technical concept within the administration of education has cost us a lot because everybody is emphasizing grammar education because that is what we have emphasized in our structure.”

“We want a Director General for Technical Education Services so that the emphasis is there in the structure of the education and all TVET will work to its Director General,” he added.

Aside from this, the Senior Minister also charged Technical Universities to stick to their mandate of training technicians to bridge the unemployment gap.

He observed that “you go to every polytechnic is this country and you realise that they are offering degrees in marketing, personnel management and public relations all along the lines of grammarian schools. I am saying that is not their core business.”

Source: Citifmonline