Tamale, Aug. 17, GNA - Students of Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) in the Nanumba North and Savelugu/Nanton Districts of the Northern Region cannot undertake practical, vocational and technical exercises because of lack of workshops.

Most of the workshops have been converted into classrooms because there are no tools for practical training, a situation that has compelled majority of the students to abandon studying practical skills. This was contained in a press statement issued in Tamale on Wednesday by the Youth Idleness Control Centre (YICC), a Tamale-based NGO, and signed by its Director, Mr Theodore Asamani.

The statement said this state of affairs was uncovered through career guidance/counselling and diagnostic test the Centre conducted in some schools in the Northern Region.

The study, which was sponsored by the Nanumba Child Development Programme and other NGOs, was carried out in Bimbilla in the Nanumba North District and Savelugu in the Savelugu/Nanton District. The study also revealed that most of the schools offering vocational and technical subjects had no teachers to handle those subjects.

The statement said not much attention was paid to the technical/vocational subjects in schools.

"A JSS student who has passed out cannot compare himself/herself to a 'Kayayoo' in terms of remuneration because the JSS student is handicapped in terms of skills and remuneration to make a living," it added.

The statement called for an immediate remedy from the authorities, saying, "no nation can ever forge ahead in development without technological development".