Date: 20-07-2016 Time: 05:07:39:am
Polytechnics in the country risk a freeze on humanity related programmes if attempts to amend the Technical Universities Bill, currently before Parliament are successful.
Employment and Labour Relations Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, is one of the lead campaigners calling for the hands of polytechnics to be tied by legislation to prevent them from running programmes which are not part of their mandate.
“I suggest strongly that we will tie the hands of the polytechnics through legislation that they will not and they should not be allowed to depart into Business and Management where the orientation will shift,” he told the Members of Parliament (MPs) Tuesday.
As the unemployment rate of graduates continues to surge in Ghana many people are blaming the tertiary institutions for the development. They say the institutions have focused on programmes which are not part of their mandates to the chagrin and detriment of products.
They noted that if tertiary institutions are not compelled to align to their core mandates; it will spell doom for the future human resource of the country.
Mr Iddrisu believes institutions such as the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) mandated to run science-related programmes and the University of Cape Coast given the mandate to train educational professionals have all deviated from their mandates.
Both KNUST and UCC are running humanity programmes such as Law, Tourism, Sociology, and Economics among others which do not form part of their mandate.
Technical and vocational education, the Minister observed, “lies with the discovery of oil in the country and if you look at the skill that we need, it is at the level of technical and vocational education.”
MP for Bekwai, Joe Osei Owusu says graduates of the Maritime University are unable to find jobs in the country despite the many opportunities available in the maritime industry.
This, he argues is due to the limited scope of in practical aspect of their education.
“We’ve had several interactions with the authorities of the Maritime Institution but they complain there is no vessel in which the technical part of the certification of the students would be done,” he said.
He is appealing to the government to help acquire a vessel for the school for the students to fulfil that essential part of their education.
Source: Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Austin Brakopowers | Email: Austin.powers@myjoyonline.com
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