K-Poly gets new Governing Council.

Kumasi, Aug 11, GNA - Mr Kwadwo Baah Wiredu, Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, has appealed to Polytechnic Governing Councils to be proactive in the discharge of their duties.

This will ensure that Polytechnics remained focused on providing technical expertise required for the industrial development of the country.

Mr Baah Wiredu, who was inaugurating the reconstituted Governing Council of the Kumasi Polytechnic at the weekend, expressed regret that Polytechnics were loosing their focus.

The new Council is under the chairmanship of Mr Daniel Mireku Owiredu, Managing Director of Ashanti Goldfields Limited, Obuasi. He said the Polytechnics needed to take a closer look at the courses they offered in order to impart technical knowledge to students to provide middle-level technical know-how for the country. He said the government was working hard to find solutions to some of the problems facing the Polytechnics and urged the Councils to initiate measures to solve some of them.

Mr Owiredu said the Council would forge good working relationships with all stakeholders to achieve the objectives of the Polytechnic. He said the Council would get industries to accept students for attachment during vacation.

Dr Lord Asamoah, Principal of the Polytechnic, commended the former Board for their initiatives that had brought about massive infrastructure development on the campus.

K-Poly gives admission quota to rural senior secondary schools

The offer, which begins in the 2003/2004 academic year; and follows the path blazed by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), is to enable students from deprived rural secondary schools who are not able to compete with their urban counterparts for admission, to gain access to polytechnic education.

Dr Lord Asamoah, Principal of the Kumasi Polytechnic, who announced this in Kumasi, said 39 rural secondary schools had been selected as beneficiaries of the programme.

Dr Asamoah, who was speaking at the second congregation of the Polytechnic at the weekend, said the offer was part of the Polytechnic's social and statutory responsibility of providing service to the communities.

He said the Polytechnic was also offering 10 scholarships each year for five years in support of the Otumfuo Education Fund.

The value of the scholarship is estimated at 250 million cedis. Five scholarships per year have also been awarded to students from Adako-Jachie in the Ejisu-Juaben District to show appreciation to the chiefs and people in the town for releasing more than 12 hectares to the Polytechnic free of charge to be developed into a second campus. Dr Asamoah said the Polytechnic has also donated a cheque for 10 million cedis to the town to buy books for their school library.

He commended the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu 11, for his laudable exploits at promoting quality education in the country and said the Polytechnic would also do its part to provide quality education.