Dutch gov't equips Dabokpa Technical Institute

Tamale, July 9, GNA- The Dutch government on Wednesday handed over technical and vocational training equipment valued at 600,000 dollars to the Dabokpa Technical/Vocational Institute in Tamale to help train the youth in employable skills.

The equipment comprising machines, accessories, spare parts and hand tools had been installed in the Carpentry and Joinery, Mechanical Engineering, Block laying and Concreting, Electrical and Electronics and Automotive Engineering Departments of the Institute.

The Centre, which was an initiative of Ghana and the Dutch Governments, would serve as a resource centre for schools in the region as well as artisans from the public who want to upgrade their professional skills in their respective fields to help provide quality service to advance the country's industrial growth.

Speaking at the function, Mr Roderick A Wellington, Acting Director of Technical and Vocational Education, said no nation could succeed in developing its industrial sector without a skilled human resources base

He said it was on this note that the government was bent on providing the youth with appropriate technical and vocational skills to help the country to overcome the numerous problems that were militating against its orderly development.

The Director expressed happiness that the negative perception of the public about technical and vocational education was dwindling and expressed the hope that parents would now pay more attention to giving their children technical and vocational training to develop their communities.

He said there was no gainsaying that the government's Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) would not succeed if serious attention was not given to the development of technical and vocational education. The Director said the government would therefore ensure that at least there was one technical institution in every district to provide the youth with skills that would help to transform the country into an industrially prosperous one in the shortest time.

Madam Margaret Iddrisu, Principal of the Institute said technical and vocational education was the wheel that would accelerate the industrial development of the country.

She noted that it was only through such institutions that the youth could be trained and retrained to provide them with the requisite technical skills that were crucial for the socio-economic development of the country.

She appealed to the Ghana Education Service to help provide classroom and hostel facilities and also build a fence-wall round the school land to stop encroachment by private developers.

Mr Iddrisu Adam, Chief Executive of the Tamale Municipal Assembly appealed to people in the community to stop encroaching on the school land but to see the school as their own and help it to develop. He advised the students to be disciplined and also educate their parents to invest in their education to enable them to contribute effectively to the development of the country.

Mr Gerrit Esser, Project Manager of Ghana-Netherlands Vocational and Technical Resource Centres Project said next month a team of eight Ghanaian teachers recruited from the Kumasi Technical Training Institute and Accra Technical Training Centre trained in the Netherlands, would arrive in the country to train teachers on the use of the equipment. He said 45 per cent of the total cost of the equipment including installation and training was a grant from the Dutch government while 5.5 per cent was to be paid directly as commitment fee by the Ghana Government.

The remaining 49.5 per cent was a loan from the Dutch Banks, which would be paid by instalment to the execution agency, the TNW in the Netherlands. The Centre is among 18 out of 20 institutions with two institutions in each regions have benefited from the facility.