The Eastern Regional Director of Education, Ms Monica Ankrah, has urged the public to re-orient their mindset and prioritise technical vocations as a source of job opportunities.
She noted that the youth did not show much interest in learning vocations, especially relating to the visual arts as a result of the perception that technical and vocational institutions were preserved for children who did not have the mental ability to climb the academic ladder.
“This has contributed to poor workmanship, lack of employment, poor productivity and foreign artisans taking over our skilled labour,” she said.
Ms Ankrah said this during the visual arts quiz and drawing competition for Senior High Schools (SHS) last Tuesday on the theme: “Emphasising the Role of Visual Arts in National Development: Re-setting the Mind set.”
She said until efforts were made to whip up the interest of the youth and younger generations in the field, the nation could not expect any economic break-through in the near future.
Ms Ankrah further noted that vocational and skills development education appeared to be lagging behind in a number of ways and had been the bane of our economic development efforts.
According to her, their major objective was to formulate polices for skills development across the broad spectrum of pre-tertiary educational programs formal, informal and non-formal sectors.
“When young graduates develop their visual arts skills and with little capital, they would be able to establish themselves in a number of ways,” she said, adding that subject areas like painting, sculpture, textiles, and graphics offered ready employment to the youth.
Ms Ankrah added that learning vocation was an important field of study that could not be ignored in the nation’s quest for social-economic development.
She again noted that over the years, vocational skills of the people had improved the productivity and competitiveness of the skilled workforce and raised the income generating capacities of people especially women and low income groups, through the provision of quality, industry-oriented and competency-based training programs.
For his part, the Eastern Regional Director of Centre for National Culture (CNC), Mr Stephen Sedofu, encouraged the students to show much interest in the study of visual arts to help minimise the issue of unemployment in the country.
He noted that citizens, especially the unemployed youth, when engaged in the various aspects of visual arts, would automatically create avenues for employment.
On the quiz, the Ghana SHS (GHANASS) emerged the first, followed by the Oti Boateng SHS (OBOSS) and the Seventh day Adventist SHS (SEDASS) took the third position.
On the drawing, GHANASS again took the first position, and OBOSS for the second time emerged the second and the New Juaben SHS (NJUASCO) took the third position.
The participating schools were: Aburi Girls SHS(ABUGISS), High Mount Sinai SHS,
Koforidua SHS/Technical (SECTECH), GHANASS, NJUASCO, OBOSS and SEDASS.
By: Alberta Sarpong, Koforidua.
