The minority leader, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu has assured the Akufo Addo government of the minority’s preparedness to support any attempt or policy geared towards tackling the menace of unemployment.
He noted that unemployment is a major source of worry for every lawmaker and requires the attention of all and sundry to join resources in the fight against it.
The security of the nation, he added, is no longer guaranteed, considering the current unemployment levels especially among the youth.
The Tamale south lawmaker was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the Dabokpa Technical Old Students Association (DOSA), at the Dabokpa Technical Institute, in Tamale.
Mr. Iddrisu recounted the number of times people, especially the youth visited his office with their certificates to seek for jobs when he was Minister for Labour Relations, a situation he described as helpless, because he could not meet their demands. This alone, according to him, showed the magnitude of the unemployment canker.
The minority, however, he says will not support a reactionary unemployment policy which lacks vision, comprehensiveness and sustainability.
He said for example, the 2018 budget of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), mentioned the formation of the Nation Builders Corps, which is expected to employ one hundred thousand graduates.
The 600 million Ghana cedis amount earmarked for this policy by 2018 budget statement, is woefully inadequate, the minority leader said.
The government, the minority leader said, fell short of naming the policy as a senior national service activity or engagement. And to make matters worse, the monthly take home pay for these nation builders is less than what a national service person earns.
He reminded students of the need to respect authorities of the school and asked for greater collaboration between the old students, the school and the Dabokpa community in resolving some of their differences, especially those regarding the use of school land for the activities of the community.
He mentioned that students, who find themselves in technical institutions in the country must count themselves lucky because at the end of their study they would have acquired employable skills.
Mr Iddrisu recounted that the pleas from both the board and the Principal of Dabokpa did not fall on deaf ears when they appealed to him to take a good hard look at the school’s lack of the infrastructure.
He therefore called on the government to continue that deal to uplift technical and vocational institutions of the country.
The principal of the Dabokpa Technical Institute, Madam Mariama Mahama, in her welcome address, thanked the old students of the school for forming an association to contribute their quota towards the development of the institute.
The school, she says, continues to develop and every little resource must be harnessed to develop the school into a fully fletched technical Institution, producing competent technical graduates for the benefit of society.
This, she says, will not be possible if some of the teething challenges of the institute are left unattended to by stakeholders of technical education.
The only means of transport for the school, she lamented, is broken down and this has made it very difficult for them to convey students to partner organisations for practical engagements.
Teacher accommodation, Madam Mariama noted, is one of the key challenges of Dabokpa Technical.
She mentioned that though lots of the students stay on campus, teachers have to find accommodation in town; a situation which does not help in taking good care of the students, especially after classes have closed.
The absence of a computer laboratory fully connected to the internet makes learning difficult since both students and teachers are not able to connect with other global technical institutions to share new knowledge and ideas.
