The impact of the gradual decline of the Ghanaian textile industry on textile education in Ghana

Abstract

There ha s b een pe rsistent, dr astic de cline of t he T extile Industry i n G hana w hich i s awfully affecting the study of textiles in Ghanaian Textiles education institutions. Upon this f oundation, t he s tudy sought t o e xamine a nd di scuss t he i mpact of the decline o f Ghana’s t extile i ndustry on t extiles e ducation i n G hana. T he obj ectives of t he s tudy among others were to identify and document the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of t he G hanaian T extile Industry, p roblems t hat ar e en dangering t he G hanaian t extiles industry and how they are affecting Textile Education in Ghana. The population for the study c onsisted of s tudents, l ecturers and he ads of de partments of selected t extiles education in stitutions in G hana as w ell a s o peratives in G hana te xtile f actories. T he methodology e mployed w as t he qua litative a pproach and t he de scriptive s urvey. Observation and interviews were the research instruments used to gather data. The main findings were that protracted labour unrest in the textile industry, poor attitude of factory workers and state officials on textiles, smuggling of textiles, under-declared imports, and copied brands by foreign companies and high cost of textiles production have contributed to the current declining stage of the industry; and has also contributed adversely to the reduction of the intake of textile students in textile education institutions. The study then recommends among others that the government of Ghana invests massively in the local textile industry by giving bailouts for the acquisition of new machinery, human resource and m anpower d evelopment, t he pr ovision o f l aboratories a nd e quipment t o e nhance teaching to make the textiles graduate marketable.