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President urges Industry to partner with
Polytechnics
Tamale, Sept. 8, Ghanadot/GNA - President
John Agyekum Kufuor has called on industrial establishments
to collaborate with the country's Polytechnics to offer
practical training and attachment opportunities for students
to prepare them for the challenges on the job market.
He noted that the Polytechnics had already introduced the
concept of Competency Based Teaching (CBT) and learning,
which he said, if properly implemented could, churn out
highly skilled graduates to facilitate rapid
industrialisation.
These were contained in a speech read for him by Alhaji
Mustapha Ali Idris, Northern Regional Minister, at the
second Congregation of the Tamale Polytechnic on Saturday.
A total of 3,167 graduands were awarded Higher National
Diploma (HND) certificates in various disciplines for the
period 2003 to 2005.
The certificates covered courses such as accountancy,
secretaryship and management, marketing and agricultural
engineering, statistics, and hotel, catering and
institutional management.
President Kufuor said partnership between industry and the
Polytechnics would ensure that products from the
institutions were of the right calibre and could set up
their own businesses and also employ others in future.
He said numerous developmental projects springing up in
Polytechnic campuses was the result of government's efforts
to improve upon the quality of education.
President Kufuor said recent increases in salaries and
professional skill allowances of Polytechnic staff
demonstrated government's commitment to the implementation
of the proposed road map towards establishing a sustainable
formula for enhanced remuneration and conditions of service
for them.
Alhaji Seidu Yakubu Peligah, Principal of the Tamale
Polytechnic, said six members of staff of the institution
had received government grants through the GETFund to
improve upon their academic qualifications and status.
He said funds given for the pursuit of academic
qualifications were however woefully inadequate and appealed
to the government for a substantial increase of the funds to
enable many members to study.
He said the Polytechnic was currently running a programme on
solar energy system, in collaboration with the Japan
International Cooperation Agency and the Kwame Nkrumah
University of Science and Technology to address rural
electrification needs of the country.
Alhaji Peligah commended the GETFund for constructing an
administration complex, hostels, staff accommodation, an ICT
complex, a computer science laboratory and a library
complex.
He appealed to the government to construct a fence wall
around the Polytechnic to save it from encroachers.
Dr Abdulai Salifu, acting chairman of Council of the
Polytechnic, bemoaned the decline in enrolment of female
students into the Polytechnic, saying that intake had
dropped from 28 percent in 1992 to 18 percent in 2006.
He urged parents to take advantage of the Capitation grant
to keep the girl-child in School.
GNA
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