Kumasi Polytechnic strategizes to take on technical university status

The Government of Ghana is in the process of upgrading polytechnics into technical universities in consonance with the Polytechnics Act, 2007 (Act 745).

Chairman of Kumasi Polytechnic’s Governing Council, Prof. Obiri Danso says the realization of the conversion is a “means of putting the polytechnics in a better stead to contribute more meaningfully to national development aspirations and also offer a clear career pathway towards the upward academic progression of polytechnic graduates here in Ghana”.

Speaking at the 2^nd Special Congregation of Kumasi Polytechnic, he noted the Polytechnics will be better served if linked with industry and have more persons with industrial experience serve as Adjunct Faculty.

Prof. Danso says K-Poly will need to re-strategize, refocus and rebrand “to remain a true hands-on practical training institution where graduates will be trained to acquire state-of-the-art skills for industrial growth and development”.

The school’s Institute of Distance and Continuing Education graduated 600 students who have pursued and completed Bachelor of Technology (B-Tech) and various non-tertiary programmes at the Polytechnic.

The occasion presented 24 distance students from Cape Coast and Takoradi – the first time the distance learning students are graduating.

Rector of Kumasi Polytechnic, Prof Nicholas Nsowah-Nuamah, says the institution has embraced the concept of Competency Based Training (CBT), which is designed to allow a learner to demonstrate their ability to do something.

“When I take a stroll on our campus and see students of the Fashion Department, Hotel Catering, Interior Architecture and Furniture Production, Engineering and several others making their hands dirty, while seriously learning, I am encouraged that is country has a future,” he observed.

Prof. Nsowah-Nuamah encouraged the students to seek self-employment and create jobs by further developing their acquired skills “because Polytechnic education is really not for offices; the training you go through has to do with the ability to establish yourself and employ others”.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh