-60th anniversary activities will be used to push this drive
THE Government Technical Institute (GTI), last Friday marked its 60th anniversary with a commemorative ceremony, Chairman of the Board of Governors, Maj. Gen. (Rt.) Norman McLean stressed that this year there will be an advanced drive to see a transformation to a polytechnic institute.“We are looking to raise the bar at the institute,” he said. Polytechnic institutes are generally research-intensive universities with a focus on engineering, science and technology. While technical institutes generally provide post-secondary training in technical and mechanical fields focusing on training vocational skills primarily at a community college level—parallel and sometimes equivalent to the first two years at a bachelor’s-granting institution.
McLean explained that in 60 years the Institute has come a long way, from 150 students doing a few courses to an enrollment of over 2,000 and 37 diploma courses. “We have come a far way and we are looking to go further,” he posited.
The chairman lauded the support of his dedicated team and at Friday’s ceremony 10 long-standing employees were honoured for service ranging from 20 years to 49 years.
Patrick Lewis, GTI’s longest serving employee, has been with the institution for 49 years. He started in 1960 as a machinist and was 8 years later promoted to a technician. He then became an Assistant Lecturer in 1971, Lecturer 1 in 1974, Lecturer II in 1975 and senior lecturer in 1980. Lewis then acted as deputy principal in 1993 and was principal in 1994. He was re-employed as Lecturer II in 2002, a position he still holds.
McLean stressed that as GTI moves forward it focuses on the needs of Guyana and designs programmes accordingly.

SUPPORT NEEDED
To this end, he called for the business community to recognise their corporate social responsibility (CSR) and support the institute, which provides trained professionals for their industries.
Mr. McLean pointed to the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T), a major supporter of the Institute, and noted that the company’s staff complement is largely made up of students from GTI.
“GTI is an expensive programme,” he said, “The government alone cannot fund our development. We need to have donor support and Guyana needs the skills we turn out.”
Some of the Institute’s donors include Banks DIH, Neal and Massy and Republic Bank Limited, among others – all of whom contribute to the improvements at the Institute to date.
“Guyana is now on a spring board to more advancement and we have to prepare our youths to benefit from the opportunities more development will bring and they are the ones who will continue to move the country forward,” McLean said.   

GRADUAL IMPROVEMENT
According to the Chairman, there is no single high-point in the years that GTI has been in operation; rather there has been a gradual improvement over the years.
He pointed to the average grade-point pass rate; in 2006 it was 52 per cent, 59.1 per cent in 2007, 60 per cent in 2008, 71.2 per cent in 2009 and then further up to 73 per cent in the last academic year.
GTI’s Principal, Mr. Onwuzirike Chinedu, added that the Institute has over the years been working consistently to improve areas where there were weaknesses; case in point, the problem with Mathematic and English proficiency of students entering the Institute.
He stated that once this was recognised as a challenge, GTI, in collaboration with the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD), introduced an Improved Literacy and Numeracy Course – one which all students did in the first three months at GTI to improve their Mathematics and English skills.
“This has helped significantly,” Chinedu said.
Currently there are several levels of courses at the Institute; the Craft level, the Diploma level, the part-time Technician Certificate and full-time Technician Certificate levels.
As part of GTI’s programme, students are attached to different companies during the two-month break at the end of the academic year.
The Principal contends that performance at the Institute is more that just numbers, it is about ensuring that students at the end of the day are quality professionals whose performance is of a high calibre.

GTI – NO WALK OVER
Mr. Chinedu noted that the Institute has been plagued by the image that it is a place for less than ‘bright’ students, since all the ‘bright’ secondary school leavers go to the University of Guyana (UG).
However, he stressed that GTI is no walk over, but is a tertiary level institution that focuses on Technical and Vocational Educational Training (TVET) – a study that requires rounded students.
Chinedu noted that there is a difference between training and education and the general public must understand the difference and recognise that the engineers in the Technical Vocation field are no less the academics that study at UG.
“At the technical institutes the key to success is to use your brain and for that one has to be a well rounded academic,” the Principal posited.
He made it clear that the perception of technical education by many people needs to be changed.
“If students are academically challenged they cannot succeed at technical institutes,” he said, “The society’s perception and views say that those academically challenged are the ones who attend technical institutes. These people are wrong.”
He explained that at the technical institute students cover a wide academically based curriculum that include Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Integrated Science among other areas.
Chinedu said, “The technical institutes are the place where theories of science are transformed into reality.”
The skills that are nurtured to assist with the transformation of theories of science to reality, according to the GTI principal, are taken from the Secondary Competency Certificate Programme (SCCP).
He noted that GTI and the coordinator of the SCCP Unit Coordinator and former Principal of GTI, Mr. Aubrey Overton, work closely so that students from the SCCP come straight to the Institute to further their studies.
“We are making significant moves,” Chinedu said.

ICT THURST
The GTI Principal added that there are many changes, expressly with the advances being made with Information Communication and Technology, and he noted that these place increased demand on the Institute for a different kind of skill.
However, he said while there is a demand for the Computer Science Diploma at GTI, the challenge that exists is the limited availability of computer systems and the limited classroom space.
According to him GTI is building their own computers and is looking at the issue of increasing accommodations.
Chinedu maintained that GTI will continue to respond to the nation’s demands in the technical vocational field.
Additionally, former Education Minister Dr. Dale Bisnauth is Chairman of a Committee that is advancing the thrust in this direction – a vision that has been in the pipelines since before 2009.
In an invited comment he noted that while the celebrations marked the commencement of operations at the Institute, other activities are planned this year.
Dr. Bisnauth said a special week of activities is planned for September is part of the comprehensive thrust of the Institute to advance itself as a polytechnic institute.
The Government Technical Institute was established in 1951 and offers educational training to Guyanese youths and adults in technical, commercial and scientific fields.