Tamale Technical Varsity Appeals For Private Sector Support

The Vice Chancellor (VC) of the Tamale Technical University, Dr. Abdulai Salifu Asuro, has charged industries and the private sector players to partner the government and training institutions to provide the necessary facilities and equipment that will enable the newly-upgraded Technical Universities to deliver on their mandate.

According to him, the private sector, which is the major beneficiary of the graduates of the training institutions, must begin to support the training of the students, so that quality material would be produced at the end of the day.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Chronicle at his office in Tamale, Dr. Asuro bemoaned how the private sector in Ghana had been very dormant and unsupportive of the training institutions, which provide them with the needed workforce.

He was of the view that the partnership would bring effective connection between the industries and the training institutions for high productivity.

“We must agree that government cannot do it alone. I was at the Cape Province University of Technology in South Africa. It is incredible, the amount of equipment they have, which are provided by private industries.

“Industries have built a state-of-the-art facility for their Food Processing Unit, and their samples are tested on the university campus, and their staff are motivated to work, but if you come home [Ghana] there is nothing, or very little that is added to the training institutions to deliver,” he said.

He expressed the need for the government to inject more funding into Science, Vocational and Technical education in Ghana, to ensure the long survival of the newly-introduced Technical Universities.

According to him, Technical and Vocational education at the second cycle level has lost its significance, and keeps recording low enrollment, which seems to threaten the future of the Technical Universities.

In the Northern Region for instance, he said, there were less than three Vocational and Technical Training schools which can feed the university.

Dr. Asuro, therefore, appealed to parents to encourage their wards to accept Technical and Vocational education for a brighter future.

He further appealed to the government to provide adequate infrastructure for the university. Currently, the Tamale Technical University lacks a number of facilities, which makes teaching and learning quite difficult.

The government has, since 2009, abandoned six important projects of the institution, including an ultra-modern ICT centre, library complex, staff bungalow, and many others.

The VC also appealed for the construction of an ultra-modern auditorium, which, he said, had been on their wish list for the past years.

From Edmond Gyebi, Tamale