#PatrioticSpaces: We’ve retooled technical universities under Akufo-Addo – Adutwum

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Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Minister of Education, has said the Akufo-Addo government has retooled most of the technical universities to produce students who are cut for the job market.

“Our equipment are top of the line,” Adutwum said at the just ended #PatrioticSpaces on Twitter. “Our technical universities have been retooled and revamped.”

Speaking on the topic: “Education for the next generation,” he said beginning next year, students will have more contact hours on the field to gain enough practical experience before graduating.

“Beginning next year in a number of schools our students will have to go to school for three days and they will have to be in an industry for another two days,” Adutwum said. “It’s not just a short internship, but we’re integrating it into the teaching and learning process so that TVET will become true to its name.”

Investing in education

Meanwhile, he said the Akufo-Addo government is investing more in the education sector to position Ghana well in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is the current and developing environment in which disruptive technologies and trends such as the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, virtual reality and artificial intelligence (AI) are changing the way modern people live and work.

Adutwum said the current government is transforming the sector to make it fit for purpose.

“What we are trying to do is to make Ghana’s education [system] fit for purpose so far as the Fourth Industrial Revolution is concerned,” the education minister said at the latest edition of #PatrioticSpaces on Twitter.

“We know we are in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and things are shifting rapidly,” he said. “We also have to confront the challenge of inequity within our country and outside.”

He added: “I know there are people who will say our education system has challenges. Yes, we do but these are mere hiccups. The kind of transformation work that the President is doing in the education sector is second to none. The infrastructure that we’re building across the country is part of the transformation agenda.”

Leapfrogging approach

Adutwum said access is key in order to produce the best human resources to compete in the global space, and to achieve this, President Nana Akufo-Addo introduced the double-track system to bridge the gap.

“Double-track system is a leapfrogging strategy for access because before the President promised Free SHS, the research that had been done indicated that it was going to take 20 years for us to be able to do Free SHS,” the minister said.

“So, when the President said ‘use double-track as is done in California and other places’ he was prescribing a leapfrogging strategy for access. Instead of 20 years, he was able to do it during his first term using a time-tested innovative strategy that increases access without waiting for the development of infrastructure over a period of 20 years,” he said.

“When we came to power, enrollment in secondary education was 800,000. Today, we’re talking about 1.3 million within a period of six years because the President adopted a leapfrogging strategy for access,” Adutwum told the over 2,000 participants.

Source: Daily Mail GH