‘Students need skills training, academic knowledge’
The Catholic Bishop of Sunyani, Most Reverend Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, has called for a review of the country's educational system to help equip graduates with practical skills in addition to acquiring academic knowledge.
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He said every year our schools produced a large number of graduates with inadequate employable skills, hence the need to place emphasis on both academic and vocational training, especially at the senior high school (SHS) level to make students self-employed after school.
Rev. Gyamfi made the call at the inauguration of the extension blocks and a three-storey girls’ hostel for the Gilberto Music Academy/Senior High School (SHS) at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Sunyani, the Brong Ahafo Regional capital.
The projects, undertaken at a cost of GH¢1.5 million, were sponsored by the Sacred Heart Parish in Sunyani, Manos Unidas of Madrid, Spain, Kindermissionswerk of Aachen, Germany, and the Franciscan Friars in the Sunyani Diocese.
Other sponsors were the Government of Navarra, the City Council of Pamplona, the City Council of Zizur Mayor, the City Council of Berrioplano and the City Council of the Noble Valley of Baztan, all from Navarra in Spain.
Most Rev. Gyamfi noted that it was as a result of lack of practical skills among school graduates that the Catholic Church in Sunyani decided to establish the Gilberto Music Academy/SHS to enable students to acquire academic knowledge and develop their skills at the same time to make them self-employed after school.
He noted that it was good to acquire book knowledge but students must also be taught how to use their hands, adding that most successful people in life were those who effectively combined practical skills with academic knowledge.
Rev. Gyamfi spoke about the Computerised School Selection Placement System (CSSPS), and said as it stood now, the system was unfair and unjust as it favoured junior high school (JHS) graduates from the well-endowed schools at the expense of their counterparts from the rural and deprived communities, adding that it was necessary for the system to benefit both JHS graduates from urban, rural and deprived areas in the country.
The Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Paul Evans Aidoo, in a speech read on his behalf by the Regional Director of Agriculture, Dr Cyril T. Quist, commended the Catholic Church for its unique effort and service to humanity, especially in human resource development and the provision of social amenities to improve the lives of the people.
The Parish Priest of the Sacred Heart and initiator of the projects, Fr Martino Corazzin, in his welcome address, expressed the hope that the facilities would enable the school to grow in enrolment, discipline and academic performance.
The Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) of the school donated assorted textbooks worth GH¢4,500 to the school to enhance teaching and learning.
By Samuel Duodu/Daily Graphic/Ghana
