Programme to train students in computer repairs launched A programme to train students in technical institutions to repair and service computers has been launched by the Ghana Education Service in Accra. The Computer System Support Programme (CSSP) is a two-year pilot programme which will commence in September this year and initially run as a technical institute for senior high school students who offer science programmes. Being piloted at the Accra Technical Training Cen¬tre (ATTC), the programme is supported by the Cana¬dian International Development Agency (CIDA) and UNESCO. Launching the programme, Mr Samuel Bannerman Mensah, Director-General of the GES, said the CSSP would include relevant entrepreneurial skills content to enable beneficiaries to gain-wage employment or be self-employed. As a long term strategy, he said, the GES intended setting up one of such centres in one technical institute in every region to provide maintenance and repairing services to all schools in the regions. "The establishment of these centres in our technical institutions would ensure availability of regular training materials to students undergoing the training and provide some minimal funding to the institutions," he said. Mr Bannerman-Mensah said CIDA had provided 6,000 Canadian dollars for the purchase of tools to carry out the programme while UNESCO had also provided 50,000 dollars to cover the cost of training, ICT equipment, as well as for project monitoring and evaluation. "We, as GES, have provided the workshops and classrooms and would also pay for salaries of the instructors and the teaching assistants to ensure the sustenance of the programme in order to benefit our youth". Mr Asamoah Duodu, Director of Technical Voca¬tional Education (TVET) of GES said the computer is a key equipment for lCT delivery effectively in schools, homes, offices and industries throughout the country. Source: Ghanaian Times