The acting Rector of Bolgatanga Polytechnic, Professor Samuel Alnaa, has appealed to the government to swiftly convert the polytechnic into a Technical University since the institution has addressed all its deficiencies.
The Bolgatanga and Wa Polytechnics were the only two out of the ten polytechnics who could not be converted into technical universities due to their inability to meet the conversion criteria in 2016.
But speaking at the 6th congregation of the Bolgatanga Polytechnic last Saturday, Prof. Alnaa said, the institution was now ready for conversion.
“It is clear that Bolgatanga Polytechnic is more than ready for conversion into a technical university. We have addressed all the deficiencies that made us miss out in the first assessment in July 2015”.
“We are ready for the team to reassess the Polytechnic for conversion to a technical university, and wish the Minister for Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, could make a pronouncement when the institution will be converted into a technical university….We are therefore making a clarion call to get the Bolgatanga and Wa polytechnics converted into technical universities”, he said.
Prof. Alnaa added that, the school had procured and installed multi-media and engineering equipment and well as laboratory equipment to ensure quality hands-on technical university education.
He blamed the school’s low enrollment figures especially for this year, on the government’s inability to convert it to a technical university.
He appealed to the government to grant it clearance to recruit more teaching and non-teaching staff to replace those who are either dead or retired.
Paying Polytechnics and Technical universities’ electricity bills
The Chairman of the school’s governing council, Professor Francis Atindaana Abantanga, made a passionate appeal to the government to settle all indebtedness of Polytechnics and Technical Universities to the electricity companies to avert any possible disconnections.
“I am reliably informed that these bills are very huge, and ECG in particular, has disconnected Bolgatanga Polytechnic a number of times this year, and threatened to install prepaid meters on their two campuses.
“Settling our indebtedness in full will go a long way to improve the relationship between these institutions and companies, and also enhance teaching and learning in the Polytechnic” Prof. Abantanga stated.
In all, a total of 927 graduated in various disciplines of study from the 2016 and 2017 cohorts comprising 869 with Higher National Diploma and 58 with Bachelor of Technology degrees.
The school will also be introducing 10 new Higher National Diploma and 5 Bachelor of Technology programmes for the 2018/2019 academic year.
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By: Frederick Awuni/citifmonline.com/Ghana