Akyem Oda, June 26, GNA - Professor Josephus Anamoah-Mensah, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba, has said global and internal challenges had made it imperative for Ghana to transform its educational system in order to be competitive in the global market place.

"The system aims to produce graduates of the school system who could play crucial roles in the development of the nation and close the great divide between us and other countries", he said.

Professor Anamoah-Mensah said this in a speech read on his behalf at the Silver Jubilee, Graduation, and Speech and Prize Giving ceremony of the Saint Francis Secondary/Technical School at Akyem Oda on Saturday.

It was under the Theme-"Secondary Technical Education, an effective link in the middle level manpower development of a nation".

He said some of the challenges in the reform include the phenomenal increase in knowledge, especially science and technology, the marriage between information and telecommunications among others.

He lauded the priority to be given to technical/vocational education saying, "It is not an exaggeration to state that on it depends our economic prosperity as a nation".

Professor Anamoah-Mensah expressed worry that technical/ vocational education had a low esteem among both individuals and general society and said that was an apparently disturbing trend, as the nation required an average of almost four technicians/technologists for every engineer.

He said technical/vocational education training could increase productivity and significantly improve the fortunes of the unemployed and youths in particular.

Mr Kwame Ampofo Twumasi, the Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Sports, said it was time for Ghanaians to recognize that technical and vocational education was not failures in life.

He said the new reform had a window for everybody to progress increasingly in the educational ladder.

Mr Ampofo Twumasi appealed to other tertiary institutions especially the Polytechnics took up the challenge by fashioning programmes along that line.

He said the ministry was developing the appropriate time frame and measures through which every district would be provided with a standard and well-resourced technical/vocational institute.

"Existing secondary/technical schools not efficiently operating would be mapped out for conversion into technical institutes". He said in line with that policy the ministry and the Ghana Education Service (GES) had marked out schools in certain districts with the basic infrastructure facilities to be absorbed and converted into a standard technical/vocational institute.

Mr Dominic Acquah, the Headmaster of the school, said for the past two consecutive years, the school recorded 100 percent in the final examinations with many students entering tertiary institutions. He commended the Parent Teacher-Association (PTA) for providing the school with a computer laboratory with some computers and two-apartment staff bungalow.

Mr Acquah appealed to the ministry to assist the school to acquire a vehicle, to construct a boy's dormitory and an assembly hall.