‘Conversion of polytechnics to create career opportunities’
The Minister of Education, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, has reaffirmed the government’s commitment to convert all 10 polytechnics into technical universities to create the needed academic and career opportunities for learners with competence in technical/vocational education.
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Speaking at the 12th congregation of the Cape Coast Polytechnic last Saturday, she said, in line with the conversion of the polytechnics, a team of experts was dispatched to each of the 10 polytechnics to inspect governance structure, staff and facilities to ascertain the level of readiness of individual polytechnics for the conversion.
“The inspection also informed us about the needs of the various polytechnics so that the necessary arrangements could be made to adequately support them in the conversion. In the end, the goal still remains to get all polytechnics eventually converted into technical universities”, she said.
Graduates
One thousand seven hundred and seventy six students, comprising 1,121 males and 655 females graduated with Bachelor of Technology, (Mechanical Engineering), the Bachelor of Technology (Building Technology) and Higher National Diploma (HND) for pursuing programmes in business, engineering and applied sciences.
President John Dramani Mahama launched the conversion of polytechnics to technical universities in Takoradi last Tuesday. The programme takes off in the 2016/2017 academic year with six institutions that satisfied the conversion criteria.
They are the Takoradi, Kumasi, Accra, Ho, Koforidua and Sunyani polytechnics and the conversion means the technical universities would be admitting students for the Bachelor of Technology (B Tech) programmes for a start.
Reassessment
The Cape Coast and Tamale polytechnics have called for reassessment of their readiness and the team of experts would be in the institutions this month to do so.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said just last month, a delegation from the ministry started negotiating for equipment that would be required for the upgrading of the laboratories of the four polytechnics that were yet to be converted, in order to speed up the process.
Technical education
“The Ministry of Education strongly believes in the relevance of technical and vocational education to national development. It is, therefore, committed to ensuring that institutions that provide this kind of training are well-resourced to put them in a better position to offer technical and vocational education and training to our youth,” she stressed.
Prof Opoku-Agyemang said in an effort to improve the human resource profile of the polytechnics, the ministry was working hard to secure scholarships for staff to study for higher degrees in renowned universities.
Scholarships
Currently, she said, 10 scholarships for doctoral degrees had been secured as part of a collaborative effort between the ministry and the Ministry of Human Capacity in Hungary, and added that each scholarship was allocated exclusively to one of the 10 polytechnics, to further their education.
The Chairman of the Governing Council of the Cape Coast Polytechnic, Dr Eric George Don-Arthur, expressed delight at the decision by the government to convert the polytechnics into technical universities, saying “this policy is like the one stone that kills two birds or more at once - it resolves the age-long problem of academic progression, and at the same time, increases enrolment in the polytechnics.”
Challenges
The Rector of the Cape Coast Polytechnic, Professor Lawrence Atepor, mentioned some challenges confronting the institution as the need to replace retired staff and irregular government subventions, and appealed to the government to come to the aid of the institution.