Cape Coast, Nov.7, GNA - President John Evans Atta Mills on Saturday gave the assurance that government will "share the limited funds judiciously" to ensure the delivery of quality tertiary education despite current economic pressures, to achieve its vision of a "better Ghana". The President said "While your subvention may not be the full quantum you need, I wish to appeal to the Polytechnic community to work closely with government to improve resource availability".

He gave the assurance in a speech read on his behalf at the sixth Congregation of the Cape Coast Polytechnic, in Cape Coast. President Mills cautioned the Polytechnic authorities to ensure that resources allocated to the school were used for the purpose for which they were given.

A total of 1,777 students of the 2007 and 2008 academic year who undertook various courses including Accountancy, Business Management and Engineering graduated.

President Mills said that Ghana must have a national identity that will help shape its dreams and aspirations by nurturing consensus building in democratic governance, saying "the underlying philosophy of branding Ghana must be of interest to the entire citizenry". He stressed that issues of national interest should override partisan politics and urged the graduands to use their youthful energies to foster cohesion and unity.

President Mills also asked them to be agents of change by developing the right attitude of honesty, discipline and truthfulness to fight corruption and other social injustices in the country. "I charge you therefore to help transform Ghana into a country where every individual will have numerous opportunities for self-development, and where each will take-up his or her responsibilities".

President Mills urged the graduands to serve the nation in whatever duty and to be worthy ambassadors of their alma mater.

He said that the value of their qualifications would be determined by their output at their work places and they should further their education to enable them to compete on the international job market.

Chairman of the Cape Coast Polytechnic Council, Dr. Ato Cobbina said the school has initiated a five-year strategic plan under which more students were to be admitted for engineering programmes to fill positions in the middle and top level management of the country's industries. He said this was imperative because available records indicated that the total enrolment of students pursuing programmes in humanities at the tertiary level were 81.9 per cent compared with the 18.1 per cent in the Engineering faculties.

Dr Cobbina charged the authorities find out why many second-cycle students did not offer Science and Engineering oriented courses to fill the many vacancies available in the polytechnics.

The Rector of Cape Coast Polytechnic, Professor Robert Kwame Nkum expressed gratitude to the government for supporting development projects of the institution and appealed for more infrastructural support in the area of sports and other facilities.

He said the Polytechnic was being assisted to start an oil and gas programme to produce the needed manpower for Ghana's oil industry.