ST MARY'S VOCATIONAL GETS MANAGEMENT C'TTEE (PAGE 47)

THE management of the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) has appealed to the government to, as a matter of urgency, allocate some Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) projects to vocational training institutions.
He said that would help to improve the infrastructure in those institutions, most of which were gradually becoming outmoded and dangerous to both trainees and instructors, thereby undermining effective teaching and learning.
The Deputy Director of Programmes and Operations of the NVTI, Mr Clement K. Osei Tutu, who made the appeal on behalf of the management, also called for the posting of trained teachers to the institutions to help in the teaching of English and Mathematics.
“We believe that if these concerns are addressed by the government, vocational education, as required by the new educational reform, will take its rightful place so far as education of the youth is concerned,” Mr Osei Tutu stated.
He was speaking at the inauguration of a 13-member Centre Management Committee of the St Mary Vocational Training Institute at Asamankese last Saturday.
The committee, with Mr Justice Kofi Akrowiah, a circuit court judge, as its chairman, would, among other things, serve as an advisory body to the management of the institution.
The deputy director said under the new educational programme, the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports (MoESS) had tasked vocational institutions with the responsibility of training about 15,000 students every year.
In spite of that responsibility entrusted to the institutions, they had, over the years, continued to lack basic infrastructure and had been excluded from the various government-sponsored programmes such as the GETFund, the feeding grant and the provision of vehicles which had been made available to senior high schools, training colleges and technical institutions, he said.
“Having entrusted this responsibility with us, we appeal to the government to take care of our needs to enable us to improve upon our intake of students,” Mr Osei Tutu stated, adding that it was time NVTI institutions were included in the schools selection process.
That, he noted, would help to do away with the notion that vocational training was for school drop-outs.
Notwithstanding the difficulties facing the 38 institutions under the NVTI nationwide, Mr Osei Tutu, on behalf of the management, thanked the government for its support for the centres over the years.
The Manageress of the St Mary Vocational Institute, Mrs Felicia Akapame, said the school, which was established in 1980, had provided entrepreneurial skills training in food service, beauty care, fashion designing, catering, among others, for over 1,000 girls over the years.
She, however, said in spite of the effort, the institution had been saddled with numerous problems, such as transportation and the lack of permanent classrooms.