Ho, Nov. 30, GNA - Miss Elizabeth Ohene, Minister of State, Tertiary Education on Saturday emphasised the need for polytechnics to remain focused on their distinct roles as trainers of the technically skilled labour force needed to wheel the country's economy.
She, therefore, urged polytechnics to strive to maintain their identity as "career-focused institutions of practical learning to serve the needs of industry."
Miss Ohene was addressing the fourth Congregation of the Ho Polytechnic, which also climaxed the 10th anniversary of the Polytechnic as a Tertiary Institution, on behalf the President.
She stressed that it was time for industry to recognise the polytechnics as partners in driving the engine of economic growth and support them accordingly. The Minister suggested that Industry could offer skills-upgrading opportunities for their staff and students of polytechnics, contribute to their endowment funds and create educational chairs for technical training and technological innovation.
She said government would continue to support the polytechnics to achieve their full potential and give them a new lease of life.
Miss Ohene said in this direction the government was taking steps to implement the recommendations contained in the report of the Technical Committee on Polytechnic Education, chaired by Professor Francis Kwami, who is Chairman of the Ho Polytechnic Council.
She also announced that laboratories and workshops of all polytechnics would soon be refurbished with a Spanish loan, while learning facilities on the various campuses would be upgraded with the support of the Netherlands government.
Miss Ohene said the recent upward review of the salaries of staff of polytechnics was "one of the ways being adopted by government to create favourable conditions for the recruitment of highly qualified teaching staff with requisite workplace skills".
She said evidence of government commitment to polytechnic education at the Ho Polytechnic was the massive structures being undertaken under the GETfund, saying that this year alone the Fund allocated 1.2 billion cedis to the Institution for staff development and research.
The Minister, therefore, threw a challenge to Governing Council of the institution to "bring their rich and vast experience to bear upon the work of the Council so that the Ho Polytechnic can develop even more quickly to meet the aspirations of the nation."
She also entreated the Council to make sure that it monitored the institutions Five-Year Strategic Plan so that it did not remain "only a report".
Miss Ohene observed that in times of industrial disputes dialogue and consultation rather than confrontation should be adopted and not strikes or threats of strike which leads to "a negative public perception of polytechnics." A total of 424 graduands who passed out of the Polytechnic in 2002, were awarded the Higher National Diploma (HND) in Engineering, Applied Science and Technology, Business and Management Studies and Fashion Design.
The only two First Class Awards went to Miss Joyce Dede Mensah in Secretaryship and Management Studies and Mr Charles Elikplim Kwame Cudjoe, Accountancy.
Dr George Afeti, Principal of the Polytechnic announced that the Statistics Department, which has procured and installed state-of-the-art computer software for statistics computing lessons was in discussion with the Volta Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to organise a course to sharpen the skills of data record clerks in Hospitals, clinics and health centres.
He said, as a contribution of the institution towards the promotion of road safety in the country, the Automobile Engineering Lecturers in the Mechanical Engineering Department had submitted findings of a study on "Road Safety in Ghana: The Driver Training Factor" to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA).
Dr Afeti said the same Lecturers would soon submit another research findings on "Road Safety in Ghana: The Tyre Factor" to the DVLA.
He also announced that the Department had fabricated three woodworking machines for small-scale carpenters and furniture makers, which were as good as the imported versions.
Dr Afeti said the library was now fully air-conditioned and had fully computerised the circulation of books and that book stocks had tripled to more than 15,000 volumes of modern textbooks, technical journals and periodicals. He said the number of teachers possessing post-graduate qualifications had increased by 800 per cent, from only four in 1993 to 36 presently, while the student population had grown by about 50 per cent from 1,400 to 2,500. Dr Afeti said the programme to strengthen the practical content of training was on course as links with industry were being actively developed, while the "pedagogical skills of our teachers have been sharpened through a series of training and seminars."
The Principal said these innovations had greatly enhanced the quality of teaching and learning and oiled the wheels of the administrative machinery of the Polytechnic.
"Many more teachers now have a better command over the courses they teach and every student now has a practical opportunity to acquire hands-on computer skills before graduation," he stated.
Dr Afeti said these successes and achievements had contributed to the positive image of the Polytechnic and attracted significant goodwill and financial support from government agencies and business leaders and lauded the Getfund for allocating 7.7 billion cedis this year for the development of "our physical and academic infrastructure and the strengthening of our human resource base."
He acknowledged the goodwill and support of the Chiefs and people of Ho Asogli Traditional Area, whose newly installed Paramount Chief Togbe Afede XIV was at the congregation.
Professor Kwami, said Ho Polytechnic was a visionary institution where strategic thinking had superseded ad hoc decisions. He observed that education and training were not stagnant but moving targets and in a "globalised" world with keen competition in all spheres, "educational training cannot afford to be stagnant if they should be relevant".
Professor Kwame therefore, called for the emulation of developed countries where professional bodies in developed economies were raising their entry requirements to ensure that their professionals "are able to cope with the complexities and sophistication of the 21st century industry'
"We should appreciate these developments and respond in a forward-looking manner.
"There is, therefore, considerable urgency now for deepening the knowledge and skills base of the HND holder through advance carrier-focused programmes of study", Professor Kwami, who is a past Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah university of Science and Technology (KNUST,) stated.
