FINANCING OF TVE

The government is the main provider of funds for executing technical and vocational education programmes in the public sector, covering the provision of buildings, equipment, handtools, materials for training and staff emoluments.

Friendly foreign countries constitute another source of funding for technical and vocational education. The assistance given by the foreign countries may be in the form of loans or grants. For example, the Canadian government, through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), has jointly with the Government of Ghana established two technical institutions, namely Accra Technical Training Centre and Kumasi Technical Institute. CIDA has from time to time been providing funds for supporting the two institutions as well as for rehabilitating Tamale Polytechnic.

The German government has also under a joint project with the government of Ghana helped to establish Takoradi Technical Institute and continues to give support to this Institute in the form of equipment and materials for training. Through the cooperation of the Governments of Ghana and France, an Industrial Maintenance Department, which is the first of its kind in Ghana, has been established at Accra Technical Training Centre this year, 1994, to train industrial maintenance technicians on full-time as well as on part-time basis.

Short courses also in Industrial Maintenance will be run for technical personnel, including technicians and engineers already employed in industry.

The following describes briefly the procedure for allocating funds for technical and vocational education programmes under the annual budget:

a) At the beginning of the last quarter of every year, the technical institutions in the public system submit their estimates (both recurrent and capital) for the ensuing year to the headquarters of the Ghana Education Service, where they are collated and sent to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. The Ministry of finance and Economic Planning further collates the estimates of all Ministries and departments in the public service and sumbits them to Parliament for approval.

b) Quarterly grants from the approved budget are allocated to the technical institutions from the regional offices of the Ghana Education Service. Besides being audited by external auditors, the accounts of the technical institutions are scrutinized by both the Principals of the institutions and internal auditors of the Ghana Education Service to ensure that the moneys allocated are properly and efficiently utilized in accordance with the Financial And Accounting Instructions For Secondary Schools, Training Colleges And Educational Units Issued By the Ghana Education Service.

In the case of part-time students in public technical institutions and all students in private technical and vocational institutions, the institutions charge them fees to cover costs of tuition, materials for training, and other expenses.

Funds allocated to some institutions and levels of education in Ghana over the period 1991-1993 are shown in Table 6 at Appendix 'F'. As can be seen from the Table, a substantial amount of the recurrent budget goes into personal emoluments. Thus the money left for the procurement of equipment, handtools and materials for training falls far short of what is needed for effective delivery of technical and vocational education and training.

It seems that in Ghana the financing of technical and vocational education has virtually been left to Government alone, which should not be the case. It is considered appropriate that this should be the concern of all who utilize the products of technical and vocational education, especially industry and business. Accordingly, a recommendation has been made to Government by the National co-ordinating Committee for Technical and Vocational Education and training (NACVET) that the industrial and commercial organizations, should be asked by law to make a financial contribution for the development and promotion of technical and vocational education and training, so as to enable it to meet the present and future technological needs of industry and commerce.