Members of the Ghana National Union of Polytechnic Students Wednesday morning embarked on a demonstration to register discontent about what they termed “conscious marginalisation and demeaning of polytechnic education in Ghana”.
Wearing red and black dresses, coupled with red arm and head bands, the a three-hour started around 9.15 from the K-Poly campus and ended at the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council at about 12.45 pm.
Supported by a brass band, the students marched through some of the principal streets of Kumasi
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”, “No Discrimination in Education, Tweaa”.
Police personnel were available to provide protection for the demonstrators and also ensure law and order.
After the peaceful walk, Mr Kwaku Amponsah Manu, Coordinating Secretary of GNUPS, presented a five-page petition to the Ashanti Regional Minister’s representative, Mr Yaw Asubonteng, the Regional Coordinating Director.
In the petition, the students demanded that their teachers who were currently on strike should be made to return to the lecture halls within 48 hours
According to the Coordinating Secretary of GNUPS, as students, they had paid their school fees, whiles their parents had also fulfilled their tax obligation and could not fathom why, government as the employer would wait after weeks before commenting on the action by the teachers.
He said the least expected from the government was to sit down for its employees to embark on strike before coming out to describe it as illegal, whiles students continue to wallow in the dark as to what happened to their education.
On the issue of National Research Fund, the students sided with the demands of their lecturers that the Book and Research Allowance must be maintained instead of the proposed National Research Fund.
Their reason was that government had been found wanting with the management of existing statuary funds and this “diminishes our confidence in the smooth running of the research fund when established.”
The petition also expressed strong disapproval about the decision of the Ministry of Education that graduates from polytechnics must necessarily have two years working experience before they can be qualified to do top-up for a degree.
“The policy again lack equity since it seeks to recognise HND and Diploma graduates with no job experience as same as Senior High School leavers”, Mr Manu said.
The Ashanti Regional Coordinating Director, Mr Yaw Asubenteng commended the students for the peaceful demonstration and assured them that their concerns would be forwarded to the appropriate authorities.
