The Bolgatanga Technical Institute in the Upper East Region, has been selected to run pilot courses in the Presidential Special Initiatives (PSI) on Distance Learning Open Schooling in Technical and Vocational Education programme.
Teachers were adequately trained and enough learning materials including television sets, hand books, video cassettes and VCDs, worth 2,200 Ghana Cedis provided to the technical institute, which was among 12 others selected through out the country for the exercise.
Mrs. Abena Agyakoma Kwarteng, coordinator of the PSI on Distance Education, who announced these at the inauguration of the programme in Bolgatanga on Thursday, said government attached great importance to skills acquisition towards sustaining the country's economic development.
Mrs Kwarteng said the programme was introduced so that unemployed youth could acquire skills to enable them establish their own businesses, work in industries and further their education up to the tertiary level.
She said the exercise would be extended to the prisons to enable the authorities train inmates in vocational and technical skills, adding that Ghana was the first nation in the West African sub region to start the programme.
Mrs Kwarteng said other countries in the sub region were negotiating with Ghana for the introduction of the programme.
Mr. Alhassan Samari, the Regional Minister, lauded the programme and said education was the key to development and modernisation.
He said government had introduced vigorous policies on education, including the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education, GETFund and School Feeding Programme to enable Ghana to achieve middle-income status by 2015.
Mr Samari said government in 2002 initiated the Distance Learning Education Project to meet the diverse educational needs of the country and to achieve "Education for All" by 2015.
He pledged the support of the Regional Coordinating Council to ensure the successful implementation of the project.
Mr Samari appealed to the staff and students of the technical institute to take good care of learning materials, equipment and educational infrastructure.
Mr Martin Aloora, principal of the technical institute, said the introduction of the PSI Centre on Distance Learning would enable the educational institution to admit more students.
He urged the youth to take advantage of the innovation to acquire skills and knowledge needed for national development.
Block-laying and concreting, Catering, Basic English and Mathematics among others would be offered under the programme.