By
Edmund Mingle
Efforts
to convert the Polytechnics into Technical Universities have been given a major
boost, as the technical committee working on the conversion process, completes
its task.
 |
| Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa, Deputy Education Minister |
Consequently,
the technical committee, which was tasked to work on the modalities for the
conversion of the Polytechnics into universities, has presented its report to
the Education Ministry.
The
submission of the report, which endorses the introduction of public technical
universities, paves the way for the government to implement the next phase of
the conversion process which involves the upgrading to the polytechnics.
Samuel
Okudzeto-Ablakwa, Deputy Minister of Education, who disclosed this to the
Ghanaian Times in Accra yesterday, described the submission of the report, as
timely to address the waning interest in polytechnic education.
He
said the Ministry would study the report and make the appropriate input for a
final report to the submitted to Cabinet before the end of the year.
“After
that the President would decide when to do full implementation,” he said.
He
explained that the final report would include an action plan to effectively
implement the project which he said was critical to holistic skills training in
the country.
“President
is committed to fulfilling the promise of transforming the polytechnics into
universities to help in building the needed skilled human resource base which
is vital for national development,” he said
Among
other things, the report recommended that in addition to the characteristics of
technical universities globally, those to be established in Ghana should
research into, and provide support for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises;
promote technology adaptation and innovation; train skilled personnel for key
sectors of the economy; emphasize industry and business driven curriculum and
develop strong training partnerships with employers and industry.
With
regard to the criteria for qualification, the Committee, chaired by Dr. George
Afeti, “recommends that in order for a polytechnic to be granted technical
university status, it should be offering a minimum of four Bachelor of
Technology (B-Tech) degree programmes which should be skewed in favour of
science and technology based disciplines.”
In
addition, the committee recommended that conversion should be accompanied by
clear policies and regulations to prevent the new institutions from deviating
from the desired objective of providing technical training and skills
development of the kind that are not currently available in the traditional
universities.
“The
lessons learnt from the upgrading of the polytechnics to tertiary status
provide a useful backdrop of policy shortfalls and implementation pitfalls to
be avoided in transforming the polytechnics into technical universities,” the
report said.
END
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