TAMALE PRISON OFFICERS, INMATES ACQUIRE SKILLS (PAGE 28)

Story: Vincent Adedze, Tamale

INMATES and officers of the Tamale Central Prisons now have the opportunity to acquire skills in technical, vocational education and Training (TVET) through the President's Special Initiative on Distance Learning (PSI-DL).
The PSI-DL was recently inaugurated at the Tamale Prisons to enable beneficiaries of the programme to acquire skills in catering, block-laying, concreting, basic English and mathematics.
The programme has also afforded the inmates the opportunity to improve on reading and numeracy skills.
A number of items have been provided under the programme to help ensure the smooth implementation of the programme.
The items included television sets, video compact discs (VCDs), digital video disc players and VCD lesson notes on Junior High and Senior High schools’ English and Mathematics.
The Tamale Prison has thus become one of the four learning centres of the open schooling system under the PSI-DL introduced in a number of prisons in the country.
The PSI-DL was introduced in April 2002 to co-ordinate and make operational alternative models of education to complement the government's efforts to ensure that Ghana attains the target of “Education for All” by the year 2015.
In her inaugural address, the Co-ordinator of the PSI-DL, Madam Abena Agyakoma Kwarteng, said one thousand needy, poor and vulnerable students had been targeted to benefit from the pilot project.
“Eleven study centres made up of public and private vocational and technical institutions nationwide have been selected to take part in the project”, she said.
According to the co-ordinator, the open schooling TVET started on a pilot basis at the pre-tertiary level in September 2007.
“Currently, PSI-DL is telecasting on GTV science lessons, namely integrated science, physics, chemistry and biology. We anticipate transmitting 1,280 half-hour lessons under the science lessons on GTV”, she further stated.
Madam Kwarteng stated that the PSI-DL was closely collaborating with local and international institutions renowned for distance education delivery. They include the University of Education, Winneba; the Commonwealth of Learning, and Regional Training and Research Institute for Open and Distance Learning (RETRIDAL).
“PSI-DL has created learning centres in partnership with some churches, the Ghana National Association of Teachers and some non-governmental organisations. These learning centres have been equipped with television sets and video decks”, she pointed out.
The co-ordinator added that that the PSI-DL had produced VCDs from the already telecast lessons for sale to schools and the general public as learner support materials.
The Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Mustapha Ali Iddris, urged beneficiaries of the programme to put the facilities to good use.
“Every Ghanaian including you can contribute meaningfully to the accelerated development of this country. The purpose of this intervention is to help integrate you into society after you are out of this place”, the minister further stated.
The Regional Commander of Prisons, Mr Erle Adjei-Koreeh observed that the intervention had come at the right time as 95 per cent of the inmates were “stark illiterates”. He, however, urged both officers and inmates to take advantage of the intervention to help improve their educational status.