2,922 Students graduate from Accra Polytechnic
National service persons who accept posting to rural areas will be given priority in the award of scholarship for further studies, the Deputy Minister in charge of Tertiary Education, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has announced.
Advertisement
In addition, he said, priority would be given to such personnel when it came to job retention at their service posts.
“So, it means that when the national service process begins next month, we are expecting that we will not see all the activities around protocol, politicians, lecturers, Imams, clergy to influence the computerised placement system.
14th congregation
Addressing the 14th congregation of the Accra Polytechnic last Saturday in Accra, Mr Ablakwa explained that the package formed part of a number of interventions the government was making to get personnel to render their services to the rural communities.
In all, 2,922 students graduated from the School of Applied Science; School of Arts, Business and Management Studies; and the School of Engineering.
The overall best graduating student award went to Ms Janet Obenewaa Asante of the Engineering School.
Technical universities
He re-echoed the government’s commitment to converting all polytechnics in the country into technical universities, explaining that the technical university concept was not just a change of name.
Consequently, Mr Ablakwa announced that the government had concluded work on the draft Technical Universities Bill, “and we are expectant that when Parliament returns from recess, the executive will submit to the legislature this bill for the legislature to work on, to pass it ,so that we will have a technical universities bill.”
He said the government had put in place the relevant structures for the universities to take off, explaining that the 2015 GETFund formula, which Parliament had approved, had a component of the technical universities initiative.
Collaboration
Delivering the school’s report, the Rector of the polytechnic, Professor Sylvester Achio, announced that in its quest to remain relevant in the global knowledge sharing mix, the polytechnic continued to collaborate with institutions and industries in the UK, The Netherlands, Kenya and in Ghana.
“Aside from our old collaborative relations, we have recently successfully entered collaborations with other institutions and industries in China,” he added, explaining that those collaborations would see some staff and students going to study in those universities on scholarships.
Piece of advice
Professor Achio advised the students to be guided by the values of the polytechnic, which were truth, excellence and service.
“These were the values around which we moulded your lives. Stay true to them. I ask that you do not depart from these values because they are exactly what our nation and our world lack today,” he advised them.
The Chairman of the Governing Council, Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, assured management that the council would continue to support quality delivery of education through the review of training curricula to meet the needs of industry.