Technical, vocational programmes need attention – NAGRAT
THE National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has proposed that a quota of about 30 per cent of senior high school programmes should be dedicated to technical vocational education and training (TVET).
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It said for the country to develop, it needed to transform its middle-level manpower for the better.
“For this nation to change and develop, we need to provide middle manpower. If all we are doing is to concentrate on grammar, academic certification and all that without the provision of skills and knowledge, we are not going anywhere as a country,” the Vice President of NAGRAT, Mr Eric Angel Carbonu, told the Daily Graphic in response to the association’s position on TVET captured in its communique issued at its National Delegates Congress in Wa recently.
Poor attention
NAGRAT, the communique said, acknowledged the important role of technical vocational education and training in nation building. It further observed tha
TVET budget
Explaining further, Mr Carbonu said the budgetary allocation for TVET was smaller than that of the ‘grammar type of education,’ pointing out that, apart from the quota, the government should increase the funding for TVET and provide schools with tools and equipment for running such programmes.
For him, TVET was the surest means by which the unemployment situation in the country could be addressed.
“We want the government to design policies to enable us concentrate on vocational and technical education so that majority of our students would come out of secondary school having the knowledge in vocational skills to be able to do something with their hands, so that those who would not be able to go to universities can branch into other areas where they can use their hands-on skills”.
That, the NAGRAT Vice President said, was absolutely necessary for the total development of the country, observing that, because TVET had not been made attractive and fashionable, that had accounted for the negative perception towards it.”
Mr Carbonu said if quota was not given on TVET, heads of schools would prefer to do non-TVET programmes because it was easy to run them.
He said although the TVET programme was capital-intensive as it required equipment and tools, it provided for the acquisition of hands-on skills.
“If you are saying that you are turning the polytechnics into technical universities, where are the products coming from? If we do not have the products in the secondary schools, how would you be able to succeed in running technical universities?” he quarried.
Percentage
Mr Carbonu said, for instance, that more than 60 per cent of SHS students offered General Arts while about 30 per cent offered Science and less than 10 per cent offered Visual Arts and Home Economics, pointing out that “when you have a situation such as this, you cannot have successful technical universities because you would not get the students.”
He predicted that the country would be turned around for the better within the next 20-30 years if it gave the needed attention to TVET.
