The Minority in Parliament has expressed skepticism about the viability of government’s decision to convert polytechnics into technical Universities, saying the concept has not been well-thought through.
According to them, government should instead be taking steps to strengthen technical and vocational education at the pre-tertiary level and polytechnics before rolling out the conversion.
[contextly_sidebar id=”Ua0Rt01TwLDfoPZ7X3Twt1kErUPbPtxT”]Conversion of polytechnics to universities will see them focus on technical, engineering and vocational courses as dictated by the Technical Universities bill before Parliament.
Speaking to Citi News after the second reading of the Technical Universities bill in Parliament, the Minority Spokesperson on Education, Professor Dominic Fobih, concluded that government is rushing through with the conversion to score political points.
According to him, “It is a rush because there are certain questions if you ask, you don’t get any good explanation as if it though has not been given to those issues so it is like something that was impromptu; occurred to them that we should do this because it will be political advantage.”
Polytechnics have been neglected
However, the Minister of Education, Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyeman insists that converting polytechnics into technical universities per government’s plan will be of immense benefit to the country.
Prof Opoku Agyeman acknowledged that there are challenges with the conversion process but noted that it was necessary as the polytechnics had been neglected for far too long.
“We have isolated 13 technical schools, it has never happened in this country, that we are retooling… We need to have a strategy to refurbish these places. We have picked 13 so far. We are providing them with science labs, workshops, dormitories, with administration blocks to make them worthy of their name with technical schools.”
Polytechnic conversions
The conversions of polytechnics into technical universities was one of President John Mahama’s manifesto promises ahead of the 2012 general elections.
According to government, the purpose of the conversion into technical universities is to bridge the gap between academia and industry.
A technical committee on the conversion of polytechnics to technical universities, announced its decision to convert all polytechnics into technical universities beginning 2016.
Six polytechnics have since been converted into universities.
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana