Students demand better recognition of polytechnic education
Members of the Kumasi Polytechnic branch of the Ghana National Union of Polytechnic Students (GNUPS) yesterday embarked on a three-hour demonstration to register their discontent with what they termed “conscious marginalisation and demeaning of polytechnic education in Ghana”.
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Wearing red and black dresses, with red arm and head bands, the students set off from their campus in Kumasi around 9.15 a.m. and ended at the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council about 12.45 p.m.
Supported by a brass band, the students marched through some of the principal streets of the metropolis.
They carried placards, some of which read: “Polytechnic Education is the Gateway to National Development”, “Ablakwa Must Resign”, “We Want Government Intervention Now”, “The Government Does Not Respect Polytechnic Education”, “Ghana is Crying For Technical Education, not Economic Reform”, and “No Discrimination in Education, Tweaa”.
Petition
After hours of peaceful walk, Mr Kwaku Amponsah Manu, the Coordinating Secretary of GNUPS, presented a five-page petition to the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Director, Mr Yaw Asubonteng, who represented the Ashanti Regional Minister.
In the petition, the students appealed to the government to ensure that their teachers returned to the lecture halls within 48 hours of the demonstration.
They also touched on the burning issue of the over two-week strike by the Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG), the issue of the National Research Fund against the existing book and research allowances and the unjustifiable demand for working experience from polytechnic graduates before they could top up at the universities.
According to Mr Manu, students had paid their school fees, while their parents had also fulfilled their tax obligations, and so they could not fathom why the government, as the employer, would wait after weeks before commenting on the action by the teachers.
He said the least expected of the government was to sit down for its employees to embark on a strike before coming out to describe it as illegal, while students continued to wallow in the dark as to what would happen to their education.
Research Fund
On the issue of the National Research Fund, the students agreed with their lecturers that the Book and Research Allowance must be maintained, instead of the proposed research fund.
Their reason was that the government had been found wanting with the management of existing statutory funds and that “diminishes our confidence in the smooth running of the research fund when established”.
The petition also expressed strong disapproval at the decision of the Ministry of Education that graduates from polytechnics must necessarily have two years’ working experience before they would qualify to do top-up for a degree.
Mr Asubonteng commended the students for the peaceful demonstration and assured them that their concerns would be forwarded to the appropriate authorities.