The Headmistress of St. Paul Catholic Experimental Basic School in the Techiman Municipality, Mrs. Mary Kissiwaa Kwarteng has appealed to the Ghana Education Service to integrate Vocational/Technical (votech) education at the early childhood development level.

This, she said would create and develop the interest of children in the study of the subject at the infantile stage for them to grow with it and become familiar with it to make its practicals easy when pursuing at higher level.

“The introduction of it at that early stage must not be only the teaching of theories, but practical equipment and tools must also be made available in the basic schools to ensure serious practical work”, the Headmistress added.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the side-lines of a graduation ceremony of the school on Tuesday, Mrs. Kwarteng said GES could do that successfully if it collaborated with all stakeholders in education to develop curricula for the subject to be taught at that level.

She emphasised votech education played an essential role in accelerating national development, but regretted that successive governments had neglected the sector thereby, making it unattractive for students to pursue.

Mrs. Kwarteng dispelled the wrong perception that votech education was a reserve for the academically-weak pupils, students and dropouts, saying, any nation, which yearned to develop faster must place priority on its votech education and training.

She said if the subject was seriously taught at the early childhood level, many children would develop interest for it because of its practical aspects.

Mrs. Kwarteng announced the school commenced on the 2018/2019 academic year with 63 pupils at the kindergarten level being taught votech education alongside traditional numeracy and grammar curricula.