Four Polytechnics To Run Degree Programme

Four Polytechnics in Ghana are ready to start the Bachelor of Technology programme this year. The polytechnics are Ho, Kumasi, Takoradi and Accra. They have already submitted their curriculum and syllabus to the National Council for Tertiary Education and are awaiting for approval from the National Accreditation Board.

The President of the Ghana National Union of Polytechnic Students (GNPS), Mr Kwodwo Adjei, who disclosed this during a press conference in Accra, called on the government to expedite action on the proposal to enable the programme to take off as planned.

He also appealed to the government to put the necessary infrastructure in place to enable polytechnic graduates to pursue Masters and Doctorate degrees in Technology in the country.

According to him, this would bring relief to about 48,000 students who had passed through the Higher National Diploma (HND) system and were in dire need of furthering their education, as well as some 21,000 who were currently in the system and hoping to enter it in the future. “If the nation is to make any meaningful strive in development, it must place emphasis on polytechnic education”, he stressed.

He stated that PNDC Law 321, which established the HND Programme, clearly provided that the polytechnics would get to a level where they could run degree programmes. He continued that it was over 10 years now and so it was believed that the polytechnics were ready to take up that challenge.

He noted that the situation where holders of HND who wished to further their education at the country's universities were made to start from level 100 amounted to a waste of resources. He said when HND holders from Ghana travel to places like the United States of America and Britain, they were made to do a top-up of three to six month-programmes to qualify them to do Masters of Technology.