Nineteen technical institutes built with tax-payers' money across the country are not qualified to be called 'technical institutes', an educationist has pointed out.

"Out of the 23 public technical institutes under the Ghana Education Service (GES) only four can qualify to be called technical institutes.

"Interestingly enough, all the four were not built with the Ghanaian taxpayer's money," according to Mr. Ben Antwi-Boasiako, Executive Secretary, National Board for Professional and Technician Examinations (NABPTEX).

Mr. Antwi-Boasiako disclosed this last weekend when he addressed the 12th Matriculation of the Koforidua Polytechnic where a total of 1,317 fresh students were formally admitted to pursue studies in various disciplines.

He named the four institutes as the Accra Technical Training Centre (ATTC), Kumasi Technical Institute (KTI), St. Paul's Technical School, Kukurantumi and Takoradi Technical Institute.

He told Public Agenda in an interview that the ATTC and KTI were put up by the Canadians while Germany funded the Takoradi Technical Institute. On the other hand, the Catholic Church put up the St. Paul's Technical Institute.

The state has ill-equipped its 19 institutes whereas the organisations which put up the other four institutions have provided adequate infrastructure and equipment to guarantee students utmost level of practical training.

"In the case of ATTC and KTI, they even took the teachers to Canada for further training," Mr. Antwi-Boasiako disclosed.

In his address, the Executive Secretary observed, "For a very long time, past governments have only paid lip service to technical education."

He also noted that an overwhelming majority of students from the ill-equipped technical institutes are unable to proceed to the polytechnic; this defeats the purpose of polytechnic education, which primarily should be a platform for further development of practical skills.

The objectives of the Polytechnic Law, 1992 (PNDC Law 321) include: to provide tertiary education through full time courses in the field of manufacturing, commerce, science, technology, applied social science, applied arts and such other areas as may be determined by the authority for the time being responsible for higher education; to encourage study in technical subjects at tertiary level; and to provide opportunity for development, research, and publication of research findings.

These objectives are enforced by the White Paper on the report of the Education Reform Review Committee, 2004, which indicates that 'Government will continue to equip the polytechnics to make them offer tertiary education in their own right, to emphasise practical skills that are needed to run the productive economy and build a nation.'

Earlier in 1991, the government White Paper on the Tertiary Education Reforms in spelling out the role of polytechnics said polytechnics were to develop middle level manpower in the context of national development and that programmes were to be offered at the higher level of technician training for the award of higher diplomas without departing from syllabi dedicated to practical technician training.

Taking into account the present state of the technical institutes, Mr. Antwi-Boasiako cautioned that "It will serve this country well in our quest to industrialise and be a middle-level income country if some attention is paid to our traditional technical institutes.

"Indeed, there is an increasing need to re-tool these institutes, redesign their programmes and make their graduates first category candidates for enrolment in the polytechnics."

In addition, he pointed out that present admission requirements into the polytechnics are not favourable to technical school graduates.

However, to arrest the situation, the NABPTEX has in collaboration with the polytechnics designed an access programme under which technical institute graduates will pursue a year's study in Maths, Science and English to prepare them for any of the Higher National Diploma (HND) Engineering and Science programmes.

Meanwhile, Dr. George Afrane, Principal, Koforidua Polytechnic has stated that the polytechnic has rolled out its new School of Engineering which comprises four HND programmes, namely; Automotive, Electrical/Electronic, Mechanical and Energy Systems Engineering programmes.

Particularly, he explained that the inclusion of Energy Systems is due to the fact that "energy awareness has now become a way of life the world over," and noted that emphasis will be placed on alternative energy sources.