Minister-designate for Education, Mathew Opoku Prempeh says the Akufo-Addo government would continue with the upgrade of Technical Universities started under the John Mahama administration.
He spoke of two key areas government would be looking at in elevating technical and vocational education across the country if given the nod.
Answering a question from former Education Minister Mahama Ayariga about the President’s promise regarding technical and vocational education at his vetting by ParliamentsAppointment’s Committee Tuesday, he said he has been studying the handing over notes of the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) vis-a-vis their vision going forward.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Manhyia South said across all the government sector almost every ministry has something to do with vocal education.
He disclosed and there is a cabinet recommendation that intends to centralise vocal and technical colleges that are scattered under other ministries to the Education Ministry to enable the ministry to give targeted support to those institutions.
Also, he said there are plans to look across the board of colleges of education that they do not have courses in technical and vocational education and ICT.
According to Mr Opoku Prempeh, in line with the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) 2016 manifesto, he would dedicate or select in every region of the country one or two of the 40 colleges of education to dedicate and upgrade the labs and workshops for teachers who are going to teach technical and vocational education.
With regards to the Technical University bill of 2016, he said work on the other two polytechnics left to be converted into Technical Universities have been done and soon they would make the transition.
To make sure that all the polytechnics are upgraded not only on paper, he told the Committee he has sighted a support from China “to equip five technical universities and ten technical institutes.”
“I believe that in the interim, we could even let the University of Education or University of Cape Coast to start giving education certificate to the products from the technical institutes so that they can start teaching at the primary level,” he said.
Mr Opoku-Prempeh said upon a cursory look at all the educational reforms, the Dozbo Committee report of 1973/4 stands out as it placed emphasis on technical and vocational education which has been missed for some time now.
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