Education must be made demand driven-Osafo-Maafo

Takoradi, April 22, GNA - Mr Yaw Osafo Maafo, the Minister of Education and Sports, on Saturday said the country's educational system should be structurally reformed to make it demand-driven. He was speaking at the 20th anniversary celebration and the first Speech and Prize-Giving Day of Bompeh Secondary Technical School in Takoradi.

The programme was under the theme "Science And Technical Education - A Pre-Requisite for National Development". Mr Osafo Maafo said tertiary institutions including the universities and the polytechnics should also be demand and research driven particularly in science and technology and ICT. He said the main cause of the country's unemployment problem was that the education system was not demand driven. Mr Osafo Maafo said people graduate from educational institutions without acquiring employable skills.

Mr Osafo Maafo said his ministry is trying to solve this problem by encouraging the study and teaching of science and technology and ICT to enable products of the country's educational institutions to acquire skills relevant to development.

He said every teacher training college was to be provided with modern ICT laboratory this year to facilitate the teaching of science, technology and ICT.

Mr Osafo-Maafo said 15 out of the 38 existing teacher training colleges have been selected to offer specialised training in mathematics and science.

He said science and library facilities in 15 Teacher Training Colleges have been selected to be upgraded. Mr Osafo-Maafo said the ministry was considering the introduction of an incentive package for teachers of mathematics and science next academic year He said every second cycle institution would be provided with adequate science laboratories and technical workshops.

Mr Osafo-Maafo said technical education is a key area for reform. He said most secondary technical schools are in name only and do not have the appropriate technical equipment and workshops to adequately train students.

Mr Osafo-Maafo said there is also the problem of technical education not being demand driven so the products of these institutions find it hard to fit into the work environment.

"The new reform addresses the issues of building more adequately equipped technical schools, getting the private sector more involved in determining the choice of programmes, curricula and institutionalisation of attachment programmes".

Mrs Gladys Asmah, the Minister of Fisheries and Member of Parliament for Takoradi, spoke against the emergence of occultism and blood covenant in schools.

She also expressed concern about indiscipline in schools and among students and indulgence of some students in hard drugs, gang rape, armed robbery, arson, beating and maiming of tutors.

Mrs Asmah said, "The time has come for us to reflect on what has gone wrong and what has happened to good morals which our forefathers and mothers applied in nurturing us into responsible adults" She called on old students and Parent/Teacher associations to join school authorities to strive to arrest this unfortunate and wayward behaviour of students.

Madam Sophia Horner-Sam, the Deputy Western Regional Minister, told the students that success is achieved through hard work so they should study hard and come out with flying colours.

Professor Kwesi Andam, the Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), advised students to cultivate the reading habit to broaden their knowledge. Later, Mrs Asmah donated a quantity of English and Mathematics books to the school library and launched the school magazine. 21 April 06