Tech. varsities will be ‘massive’ boost for tech edu. – Ablakwa

A Deputy Minister of Education has predicted an improvement in the quality of technical education in the country with the upgrade of some polytechnics into technical universities.

Six polytechnics – Accra, Kumasi, Ho, Koforidua, Sunyani, and Takoradi – have been elevated to degree-awarding status for technical programmes due to begin from the 2016/2017 academic year.

Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who was responding to a question on Accra100.5FM’s Ghana Yensom on Wednesday April 21, 2016, on what changes he thought the introduction of the technical university concept will bring to Ghanaian education, said: “The changes will be massive. There will be more emphasis on hands-on, practical education and a strong alliance with industry. Industry-technical university linkages will be stronger than before. That is a strong criterion we are not joking with.”

He stated that in addition, faculties of these technical universities will be carefully selected, with their experience with industry in mind. They would be allowed to do refreshers to be abreast of the latest, cutting-edge technology of industry to enhance training of students.

The Deputy Minister further told host Chief Jerry Forson on the show that efforts would be made to ensure technical universities stick to their “core mandate” of providing technology-aligned courses.

He said there would not be a repetition of the mistakes of the polytechnic era, which deviated from their mission of offering “middle-level, hands-on education”, resulting in the current situation where “about 70% [of polytechnic students] are reading Arts and Humanities courses”.

“That will no longer be allowed with the technical university concept. What we will do is those faculties [Arts and Humanities] will not be totally closed down as if they are totally illegal, but the student ratio, about 80-90% of students, should be in the hands-on, technical engineering programmes. We will reverse the trend,” the North Tongu MP assured Ghanaians, adding: “We will reconfigure the whole system and change these perceptions, this mindset and focus, and avoid [a] mission creep, focus on the core mandate of the technical universities, which is to be institutions of hands-on technical engineering education.”