By Laudia Sawer
Tema, Aug. 22, GNA – Madam Gifty Twum Ampofo, the Deputy Minister for Education in charge of TVET, says the government is prioritising education, including the promotion of Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET).
Madam Ampofo said holistic education was not grammar-based but involved developing the heart, head, and hands.
She was speaking at the celebration of the 2022 Compassion week at the Miracle Life Child and Youth Development Centre.
The celebration, held at the Miracle Life International Church at Tema Community Five, saw 30 youth graduating from the Compassion Child Sponsorship Programme after attaining the age of 22 years.
Madam Ampofo said to ensure that more people benefitted from skills training, the 2022/2023 academic year increased the number of TVET schools on the free SHS programme from 47 to 138 with over 45,000 students being enrolled through the Computerized School Selection Placement System.
She said, in addition, the government has properly equipped TVET schools and all the ten technical universities to provide learners with the requisite modern skills needed to make a living.
She said the government, in collaboration with the German government, has also rolled out the Ghana TVET Voucher Project, which enabled master craftsmen and their apprentices to acquire modern skills training at technical institutions.
Elder Amos Kevin-Annan, a licensed Youth Minister, speaking on the theme: “Holistic Child and Youth Development,” said failure to focus on the young ones and provide them with holistic development would spell doom for Ghana.
He called on stakeholders to help develop children and the youth to secure their future.
Elder Kevin-Annan, who is also a Life Coach and Healthy Homes Advocate, said holistic development and discipline must cover physical, spiritual and the soul, stressing that the elderly must hand over the baton to the youth in development and discipline as failure to do so would come with doomsday.
He urged the youth to take their development seriously, saying physically they must be disciplined in what they eat, as nutrition and diet were very important, noting that what the youth, was eating now was scary exposing most of them to sicknesses, which hitherto were the preserves of the aged.
Dr James Owusu, the Executive Director of the Leyden Educational Foundation, also reiterated the need to promote TVET, noting that the Foundation, together with Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has launched the Integrated Online Learning Programme to provide over 3000 courses of free training for the youth.
Pastor Richard Tetteh, the Project Coordinator, Miracle Life Child, and Youth Development Center, told the Ghana News Agency that the centre existed as a partner of Compassion International Ghana, which serves as an advocate for children to release them from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty to become responsible Christian adults.
Pastor Tetteh said the implementing church partner registered its first batch of beneficiaries in 2005, adding that the beneficiaries joined between the ages of three and nine until they turned 22 years.
He added that the current 140 beneficiaries were connected to sponsors who funded their programme participation with a two-way relationship to encourage and support them in their development as well as serve as advocates for children.
GNA