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Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo delivering his address
Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo delivering his address

Pay attention to technical, vocational education - stakeholders told

The Attafuah Senior High Technical School has marked its 25th anniversary at Akyem Oda with a call on stakeholders in education to pay special attention to the development of technical and vocational education to reduce unemployment and poverty in the country. 

 

A former Minister of Finance/Education, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, who made the call, said the call had become imperative as a number of university graduates were unemployed because there was a limited job market for them due to the courses they pursued at the universities. 

He said when he was the Minister of Education some years back, there were only six universities in the country, but indicated that currently, there were over 50 universities, most of which ran humanities and other non-science biased courses so job seeking had become very difficult for graduates from the universities.

He enjoined the government to encourage both teachers and students to attach special importance to the teaching and learning of Mathematics and Science which formed the basis of technical and vocational education. 

Professor Emmanuel Gyimah of the College of Distance Education, University of Cape Coast, said technical education played a vital role in a society's economic growth and social development and increased economic development as it solved the problems of unemployment, rural-urban migration, juvenile delinquencies, slums and congestion.

He said technical and vocational education helped to develop the ingenuity of local artisans, craftsmen, technicians and technologists to design and fabricate tools, equipment and simple or complex machines to solve local problems, and added that it also paved the way for investors to do business in the country. 

Student population

Earlier in his welcome address, the Headmaster of the school, Mr Johnson Yeboah Gyekye, said the school, which was established in 1991, currently had a student population of 1,950 and staff of 126.

He said the school secured 98.3 per cent in the West Africa Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in 2015 and expressed the hope that the record would improve this year. 

According to Mr Gyekye, the school had won many national and regional awards in the academia, sports, quiz and regimental band competitions. 

He expressed gratitude to the government, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Oda, Mr William Agyapong Quaittoo, the Birim Central Municipal Assembly, the Board of Governors and the Parent-Teacher Association of the school, for their immense contributions towards the development of the school. 

The ceremony attracted many dignitaries, including the Municipal Chief Executive for Birim Central, Mr Kwabena Nkansah-Asare, the MP for Oda, Mr Agyapong Quaittoo, and the Krontihene of Akyem Kotoku Traditional Area, Obrempong Gyamfi Saforo Kyereh. 

Outstanding teachers and students were presented with awards. 

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