The World Bank has called government to increase investment in Technical and Vocational Educational Training (TVET), to produce a human resource base with the requisite skills for the labour market.
A Senior Director and Head of the Education Global Practice at the World Bank, Mr. Jaime Saavedra Chanduvi, told the B&FT, upon a recent visit to the country, that Ghana needs to guarantee that higher educational institutions provide relevant skills, which are in demand by the productive sector, and more importantly, what will be in demand in the future.
As Ghana strives to become a middle-income country, Mr Chanduvi said the government would need to raise its investment in education to ensure that the economy can continue to grow.
“The skills training sector has multiple challenges. First, we need to guarantee that the higher education institutions provide relevant skills, which implies focusing on the professions and skills that are in demand by the productive sector, and more importantly, what will be in demand in the future. And we have to do so with the right pedagogical techniques. To select the right skills, we need to involve the private sector.”
It is paramount that students show interest not only in universities but also in vocational training, which has been shrinking over time, although demand for workers with technical education keeps growing, he said.
“From talking to students, many consider going to vocational training inferior to going to university. This perception is wrong and needs to change. The academic and the technical routes are both valid and necessary for the growth of the country,” Mr Chanduvi stressed.
He spoke to the B&FT after a three-day visit to the country, which afforded him the opportunity to interact with government officials and civil society organisations, to gather firsthand information on how the bank can support the country to enhance access to quality education.
Although the country has made tremendous progress in the area of education, the bank’s director said “huge challenges still remain,” hence, the need for increased investment” to help expand facilities and improve quality of teaching and learning.”
In the area of cooperation with the country, he said: “We are still defining the lines of cooperation with the new Government. However, in addition to our current support for the implementation of the Government’s secondary education improvement programme, we are exploring topics related to improving the quality of basic education (the way that teachers relate to students in their classrooms and the incentives that lead them to do so), expanding high quality higher education, and improving the quality and relevance of Technical and Vocational Educational Training (TVET), to produce the skills that the labour market needs.”
While hoping that the government’s Free Senior High School policy, which is scheduled to take effect the next academic year, would help improve access to education, Mr Chanduvi said: “Ghana still faces important challenges in education in the area of quality.”
On whether the country should focus more on access to or quality of education, he said it was difficult to say, given the important role each of them play in the development of a human resource.
“The debate of quantity vs. quality is common in most of the countries that we work with. The answer is that it is very difficult to prioritise either one. [Countries] have to fight to achieve quantity while simultaneously improving quality. Why? Because the system needs both quantity and quality to work at all. You cannot have a country that only focuses on quality while leaving thousands of children out of the system.
What would you tell those children and their parents? To wait for the next generation in order to get an opportunity? In a similar way, you cannot only focus on quantity if you see that children are not learning in school. It would be a catastrophe to have all kids in school if they cannot read, write or contribute to the growth of the society when they graduate.
In short, we have to work on both fronts at the same time. It is hard, but public policy design and implementation is hard. We don’t do it because it is easy, but because it is urgent and important. We cannot afford the luxury of not investing in all our children. And that implies achieving quality and quantity. That is the challenge of education reform; it is tough and challenging, but at the same time, it is urgent…” he stated.
