GOVT PRIORITISES FUNDING OF EDUCATION (PAGE 11, OCT 19)

PRESIDENT John Evans Atta Mills has said the Government is managing the funding of education with utmost commitment and priority since it regards education as a vital investment by the whole community.
The President has, therefore, urged graduates of polytechnics to be partners in development and accept postings to the rural areas because that was how they would help build the nation, a job that no one can do for us.
He said this in an address read on his behalf by the Western Regional Minister, Mr Paul Evans Aidoo, at the 8th congregation of the Takoradi Polytechnic over the weekend, where graduates were awarded Bachelor of Technology and Higher National Diploma.
The congregation presented graduates for the 2006/07 and 2007/08 academic years. Out of the 3,000 students who have completed various programmes in the two academic years 1,500 of them were presented and received their certificates.
“You must never forget that, by your graduation, you are joining the working class who must contribute towards the promotion of sound economic growth and status of the country”, he stated.
He announced that this year, the Government has through the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) released GH¢ 1.7 million for the construction of the four-storey building complex for the School of Applied Arts, the Rector’s residence and internal road network of the polytechnic.
Additionally, he said the Government had given out GH¢ 13,500 for research and staff development.
He explained that the mandate of polytechnics in the country was teaching and research, and that the polytechnic was to provide carrier focused and practical oriented training to equip students to make them functional in specific sectors of the economy.
“The research agenda of the polytechnic should be geared towards the conduct of research which will yield results of practical use to the needs of industry,” he stressed.
President Mills, therefore, urged the polytechnic to devote resources to the discharge of these responsibilities, which were teaching and research.
He noted that the nation’s limited resources for research, were worthy of encouraging more client-driven research, which would serve the dual purpose of immediately aiding the client, generating income for the polytechnic and improving the competence of lecturers and students.
“The time for the polytechnics to act is now. They must not only liaise with the Government and ministries, but also sponsor media programmes and open day celebrations at the various departments for the private sector and the general public”, the President said.
“This will expose the public and industry to applied research works which could be taken up by industries”, he explained.
The Chairman of the Takoradi Polytechnic Governing Council, Dr George K.T. Oduro, announced that plans were far advanced to launch a Takoradi Polytechnic Endowment Fund to support research, teaching and learning, and also provide support for brilliant needy students of the polytechnic.
He, therefore, appealed to the alumni of the polytechnic and organisations which utilised the services of products of the polytechnic to contribute generously to the fund when it was established.
Dr Oduro said student enrolment in the polytechnic continued to expand in all programmes, and was convinced that many Ghanaians were increasingly seeing the economic benefits of investing in polytechnic education.
Yet, he said inadequate resources in the polytechnic tended to limit its capacity to provide opportunities for many applicants to receive polytechnic education.
He said as he spoke, the polytechnic’s lecture halls were seriously congested, halls of residence terribly overcrowded, and laboratories underequipped and noted that there were still a number of uncompleted projects in the polytechnic.
He appealed to the Ministry of Education and the Western Regional Co-ordinating Council to come to the aid of the polytechnic in terms of completing, especially the administrative block, which had been neglected for some time now and the construction of additional large lecture theatres for the polytechnic.
The outgoing Rector of the Polytechnic, Dr Samuel Obeng Apori, said in the area of research findings, the polytechnic channelled a lot of resources in this direction and that had led to the publication of articles in many international and national journals as well as conference proceedings.
For example, he said the polytechnic, in collaboration with industrial set-ups had developed different particle chip boards using materials hitherto considered as waste such as palm fruit fibre, sugar cane bagasse, corn stalk and pennisetum purpereum.
Dr Apori said the quality of the particle chip board had been confirmed and that management was in the process of discussing the way forward for mass production.
Additionally, he said the companies which manufactured particle chip boards which had been suffering from lack of raw materials could now bounce back into full operation and employ more hands, since the palm fruit fibre, sugar cane bagasse, corn stalk and pennisetum purpereum were easily available.