Government has allocated nearly a 200% GETFund allocation for infrastructural development of the Bolgatanga polytechnic to make it worthy of conversion into a technical university under the second phase of the conversion of polytechnics into technical universities.
Speaking at the 5th congregation of the Polytechnic, the Rector, Dr. Mba Atinga, said the highest allocation of resources from the GETFund will go into upgrading the polytechnic’s infrastructure, laboratories and faculty development required for the conversion.
He reiterated that, the polytechnic is working assiduously in collaboration with the newly converted technical universities with effect from 2016-2017 academic year, to run more Bachelor of Technology programmes in Procurement and logistics management, Ecological Agriculture, Hotel catering and institutional management and strengthen their link with industry to meet the requirements for the conversion.
Dr. Atinga appealed to government for a lecture theatre complex and sophisticated equipments to equip existing laboratories of the school and support the polytechnic raise funds to pay for a 110 acre land secured from landowners of Sumbrungu-Aguusi for future expansion of the school.
Chairman of the governing council of the polytechnic, Ambassador Donald Adabre, expressed worry at the dwindling internally-generated funds of the polytechnic occasioned by dwindling student numbers coupled with the difficulty faced by the school to introduce new programmes due to restrictions by government and regulatory bodies and appealed for a regional balance of developmental needs.
Eight hundred and seventy-six(876) students comprising 567 males and 309 females from the 2014 and 2015 batches, graduated successfully with Hussein Wasilatu of the department of catering and institutional management and Rufai Mistura of the department of marketing emerging the overall best students for the 2014 and 2015 academic years respectively.
Ambassador Adabre impressed on the graduates to take advantage of the Youth Enterprise Scheme(YES Fund) and put their entrepreneurial ideas accumulated from the polytechnic to attract funding to actualize their dreams but not always rely on government for employment.
Dr. Atinga advised the graduates to avoid easy options of acquiring material things that others spend a lifetime acquiring, but instead work hard with patience to achieve their dream goals.
–
By: Frederick Awuni/citifmonline.com/Ghana