TVET PROMOTION: Do More Practicals With Your Pupils - BDT Teacher Urges Colleagues

MyAfricaNewsArena Friday, October 07, 2022

A basic school Basic Design and Technology (BDT) teacher has urged her colleague teachers to as part of efforts to make Technical Vocational and Education Training (TVET) lively to their pupils, engage them in more practicals in handicrafts.

According to Madam Rebecca Ampah, a basic four teacher with Biriwa Methodist Basic ‘B’ School in the Mfantseman Municipality of the Central Region said, that would amongst others, motivate the pupils to develop love for technical, vocational and innovations.

“Truth of the matter is, most of us the BDT teachers are either not interested in the practicals or don't know how to do them so in this case, the child would not develop any love for something taught from books only without feeling or touching so as teachers we need to design and create some of the things we teach with the local materials available to us for them to see. ...that I believe strongly would motivate them to know the importance of TVET when growing up”, the Leadership Pioneer award winner of the 2022 Promise Awards urged colleagues.

According to her, she had been designing objects such as beads, bags and many others with her pupils with local raw materials at their disposal and often give them home works to create same and also discusses some of the job opportunities accompanying BDT with them, “so I can say that my pupils are always happy when it's time for BDT because they enjoy what we design and create.”

Madam Ampah made this in response to a question from a colleague teacher participant as to what teachers must do for their pupils and their parents to know the importance of TVET at the second edition of Joseph Benjamin Bunyan Memorial TVET lecture held at Anomabo on Friday, September 30, 2022.

According to the questioner, one of the main reasons most parents do not want their children to select TVET schools and courses were that they do not know the job opportunities and importance of TVET “hence every parent wants his or her child to become either a doctor, a nurse or an accountant, etc” hence wanted to know what must be done to change the narrative.

In contribution to that, Engineer Samuel Kwashie Amegbor, the principal of Biriwa Technical Institute (BTI), formerly Biriwa National Vocational Training and Rehabilitation Institute (Biriwa NVTRI), who was the main speaker for the event, charged basic schools to use the advantage of Parents Association (PA) meetings to sensitize parents on importance and job opportunities in studying TVET programmes “and if possible, assemble some of the things you've designed and created, like the madam said, as a form of exhibition for them [the parents] to see, and trust me, they would love it and encourage their wards to select TVET programmes.”

The lecture was instituted by the Anomabo chapter of Boys & Girls Club of Ghana, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) and education initiative in honour and memory of a former Mfantseman education directorate's TVET coordinator, the late Joseph Benjamin Bunyan for his remarkable contributions and promotion of TVET in the municipality when he was alive.

According to the Club's Executive Director, Isaac Kweku Quainoo, the demise of Benjamin Bunyan was a blow to the directorate, the club and the entire TVET fraternity in the municipality hence the institution of the memorial lecture to “though he's no more with us, tell the family that we appreciate their relative's efforts.”

The lecture was under the theme; STEM Education: The Catalyst for Industrial Revolution in the 21st Century” and in attendance were officials from the municipal education directorate, basic school heads and BDT teachers in the Mfantseman municipality and was chaired by Mr Benjamin Wilberforce Eshun, the CR chairman of Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT).

The panelists were Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) tutors from Kwegyir Aggrey Senior High Technical School (KASHTS) and BTI.