Wednesday, October 8, 2008

TAMALE PRISONS EMBRACES DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAMME (PAGE 29)

THE implementation of the Presidential Special Initiative on Distance Learning (PSI-DL) to facilitate the training of the inmates and officers of the Tamale Central Prisons in technical, vocational education and training (TVET), is on course.
The initiative was inaugurated eight months ago to enable beneficiaries of the programme to acquire skills in catering, block laying and concrete work, among others.
The programme afforded the over 290 inmates of the Tamale Prisons the opportunity to improve on their literacy and numeracy skills, as well as English and Mathematics.
A number of facilities have been provided to facilitate teaching and learning at the prisons. They include television sets, video compact discs (VCDs), digital videodisc players and lesson notes on English and Mathematics for Junior High and Senior High schools.
The Tamale Prisons has thus become one of the four learning centres of the open school (TVET) system under the PSI-DL programme introduced in a number of prisons in the country.
The PSI-DL was introduced in April, 2002 to co-ordinate and make operational, alternate models of education to complement the government’s efforts at ensuring that Ghana attained the target of “Education For All” by the year 2015.
The Northern Regional Prisons Commander, Mr Earl Adjei-Koreeh, told the Daily Graphic that the programme had come at the right time and that the inmates would start reaping its benefits by the close of the year.
He indicated that over the years, the Tamale Prisons had grappled with the problem of inadequate funding, overcrowding and lack of workshops to facilitate the training of the inmates in employable skills.
Mr Adjei-Koreeh further complained that a significant number of the staff at the Prisons had no decent accommodation.
He said inadequate funding for the maintenance and running cost of official vehicles needed to be critically addressed.

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