without science and technology

Sunyani (B/A), Dec. 6, GNA - Professor Kwasi Nsiah-Gyabaah, Rector of Sunyani Polytechnic, at the weekend warned that Ghana would not be able to achieve middle income status by 2015 if it does not pay attention to science and technology.

He said the universities and polytechnics should not be blamed for running business and arts related programmes when the junior high and senior high schools (SHS) are non-science based.

"Why should we waste time and resources to debate the duration of the SHS instead of finding strategies to adequately finance science-based education to reduce poverty, promote industrial transformation of the economy and socio-economic development of the country", he asked. Prof. Nsiah- Gyabaah gave the warning at the fourth congregation of the Polytechnic in Sunyani, which saw the presentation of National Diploma certificates to 635 graduates.

He stressed the need for stakeholders to focus on promoting technical/vocational education and provide adequate resources to improve the practical content of the course.

Prof. Nsiah-Gyabaah said without technical education, the country's resources including the oil find would be run by foreign technicians. He expressed worry about the country's failure to take advantage of the emerging opportunities created by science and technology to create jobs and promote socio-economic development.

The Rector appealed to government to set up a small business administration agency to help young entrepreneurs to own their businesses since the formal sector is not expanding.

He also urged the government to support the polytechnic through the Ghana Education Trust Fund to be able to complete on-going projects. He said the greatest challenge facing the polytechnic was inadequate accommodation for students and staff and the increasing number of people seeking admission.

The Polytechnic, he stated has a unit and a research department to improve upon the quality of teaching and promoting applied science and technology research.

"Our biggest achievement in this area is a two million Canadian dollar collaborative research grant provided by the International Development Research Centre, Canada."

In an address read on his behalf, Mr. Alex Tettey-Enyo, Minister of Education, said apart from providing full time courses in the field of manufacturing, commerce, science and technology at the tertiary level polytechnics were expected to provide opportunities for development, research and publication of research findings.

He said research was very crucial in polytechnic institutions and urged the students to take it seriously.

Mr. Tettey-Enyo noted that Sunyani Polytechnic was one of the best performing polytechnics under the Teaching and Learning Innovation Fund (TALIF) project managed by the national council for tertiary education. He stressed: "Since the inception of the TALIF projects in March 2004, Sunyani Polytechnic has won over 15 projects which are at various stages of completion with majority of them almost completed."

Mr Tetey-Enyo said more than one million Ghana Cedis have been disbursed under the fund to the polytechnic for several innovative projects such as improving the capacity of the departments of building technology to fulfil its mandate, improving the strategic plan of the polytechnics and development of teachers manuals and training models for lecturers. Nana Dr. Justices Owusu - Ansah, Chairman of the Polytechnic Council, expressed appreciation to the government for coming out with the new polytechnic law indicating that "the polytechnic Act of 2007(Act 745) has given academic autonomy to the polytechnics".

He expressed concern about the poor salaries and unattractive conditions of service for staff and appealed to the government to take a critical look at it "to save polytechnics from losing all their qualified staff".