A Lecturer in the Regional Institute for Population Studies at the University of Ghana says proficiency in numeracy and literacy is not enriching enough to warrant the success of students.

Dr Pearl Kyei says, to succeed in the 21st-century labour market, students would require much more complex skills.

“Literacy and numeracy is not enough to succeed in this world anymore. A lot of complex skills are needed in the 21^st century labour market and we really have to make sure that all the youth have the opportunity to gain those skills,” she said on the AM Show on Wednesday.

Her comments follow a recent report by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) which revealed that 1.5 million persons between the ages of 15 and 24 are not in education, employment or training.

Speaking on education and employability of students after school, the lecturer said there is a need to embed skills training programmes into regular school sessions. She also stressed that there should be collaborations between the education sector and the industry in order to devise strategies on how to ensure that curriculums reflect more of what skills are needed in the industries.

This, she said would ensure that graduates are ready for the job market.

She has recommended that even persons not in schools should be engaged in programmes that would augment their living standards, emphasising that they do not necessarily need literacy and numeracy to succeed.

Speaking on why the northern region records quite the highest rate of people not interested in education, Dr Kyei named poverty as an influential factor.

According to her, many communities focus much more on solving poverty and hunger before considering going or taking their children to school. She explained that those in the poverty bracket “just have a lot of competing interests.”

Sometimes, “the child could independently make the decision to not go to school because there are more lucrative things happening at the same time rather than being in school,” she added.

To solve the problem, the lecturer stressed the need for parents, schools and children themselves to play their roles.