Tamale Technical University ‘downgraded’; staff, SRC angry

An Executive Order by former President John Mahama, promoting Tamale Polytechnic into a technical university in 2016 has been reversed by the government, the school claimed.

This has incurred the displeasure of the Technical University Teachers’ Association of Ghana (TUTAG), Tamale Chapter, Technical University Administrators’ Association of Ghana (TUAAG), Tamale Chapter, Technical University Workers Association of Ghana (TUWAG), Tamale Chapter, Alumni Association, and the SRC leadership.

A press statement endorsed by the five bodies on Tuesday, “observed with grave concern that the current government has cleverly taken a covert step to downgrade Tamale Technical University back to a polytechnic by inaugurating its Council as a Polytechnic Governing Council.”

The school was promoted with seven other polytechnics last year but when the substantive Minister of Education inaugurated some Governing Councils in line with the Technical Universities Act 922 (2016), the Tamale Technical University was left out.

Why the school was excluded, they claimed, the minister explained that the “Tamale Technical University only received an ‘Executive Order’ by the previous government and as such could not be recognized as a Technical University since it was not part of the schedule of Technical Universities in Act 922 (2016).”

The Executive Order, they argued, makes the conversion legally binding for the institution to be effectively recognized as a Technical University.

“The university therefore needs its substantive Governing Council to function whether it is part of the schedule of the Technical Universities Act 922 (2016) or not,” the statement demanded.

The minister had indicated that the Tamale Technical University’s Council, together with Cape Coast Technical University (which was upgraded on Executive Order), Wa and Bolga Polytechnics respectively will be constituted as Polytechnic Councils until a Legislative Instrument (LI) is sent to Parliament for a period of 21 days.

“Mr. Minister, is it the responsibility of the University or your Ministry to send the LI to parliament?,” they asked, “Mr. Minister, if it is the responsibility of the Ministry to do so, and we all know it is.

You have been in charge of the Ministry for nine (9) good months, why didn’t you table the said LI in Parliament for the past nine months?” The group alleged, “It is undoubtedly a contemptuous attempt to downgrade the University to a polytechnic.

As a matter of fact, this is a disparaging attempt to frustrate the efforts of the present and past government to provide Technical University Education for the people of Northern Region.”

The five bodies who issued the statement have threatened to boycott the inauguration of the University Council as a Polytechnic Council scheduled for this week.

They therefore insisted that the Tamale Technical University Council should be inaugurated as a Technical University Council by Friday September 15, 2017, else the “government should have itself to blame for any undesirable situations that would occur as a result”.