TAKORADI POLY TO SET UP COMMITTEES...To study student leadership (PAGE 11, FEB 1, 2010)

THE Takoradi Polytechnic Council is to appoint an ad hoc committee on student leadership and campus life that will ensure that the necessary systems are in place to help students with their various programmes.
The committee will also look at how management can foster effective interactions among different groups on campus.
The Chairman of the Polytechnic Council, Dr George K.T. Oduro, announced this at a press soiree in Takoradi for journalists which afforded officials of the polytechnic, the opportunity to make public, their vision and programmes.
“We need to celebrate diversity, but we also need to move to a new level of unity,” he explained, adding “We need a warm and welcoming climate here so that people from varying backgrounds can feel safe, productive, and be satisfied that they are being evaluated on the quality of their work”.
Dr Oduro said he wanted the campus to be educationally and culturally invigorating, warm and welcoming to the top students, lecturers and staff that the polytechnic sought to attract.
He noted that the most important thing the polytechnic could offer the students was excellent lecturers, and that he was extremely impressed with the quality of lecturers and the national reputation many enjoyed.
“I am impressed with their commitment to teach, pursuit of research and performance of public service activities,” he added.
“It is true that there is no polytechnic without lecturers, but l believe that there can be no great polytechnic without great lecturers,” he noted.
He, therefore, pledged that the polytechnic council would work to maintain and strengthen the lecturers and staff and to ensure that their conditions of service were as competitive as it could possibly make them, and ensure that they corresponded with the talents and abilities of the individuals.
Dr Oduro said the polytechnic authorities would be demanding a tremendous amount of efforts from the lecturers, and asked them not only to be experts in their academic disciplines, but also to master new technologies, and develop new teaching techniques.
He called on the lecturers to develop new rich programmes and create learning opportunities that simultaneously provided services and promoted economic development in their communities and region, adding that “When they respond to these challenges with enthusiasm, we must also reward them”.
The council chairman said the bar had been raised, and that it permeated every aspect of the polytechnic and that students must be serious about their academic work, and must be strongly encouraged to take advantage of all the opportunities they had.
Dr Oduro said his vision for the Takoradi Polytechnic called for a selective expansion of research and undergraduate programmes in those areas where the polytechnic had a competitive clear advantage.
“I will be asking the new rector to do a top-bottom review of all our undergraduate programmes to give us a clear picture of the relative stature of our research and artistic efforts”, he said.
He, therefore, stressed the need to identify and invest in three-to-five interdisciplinary areas of excellence that would help define Takoradi Polytechnic to the external world.
Dr Oduro further stressed the need for a coherent plan, as well as new structures and processes to be put in place to support the integration and the kind of change that would be needed to fully realise this vision.
In view of this, he said he was exploring many options to elevate and ensure coherence in their regional presence, and planned to announce those changes within the next few months.
Dr Oduro emphasised that the expectation was there, and that people in the Western Region wanted value for their Ghanaian Cedis and they wanted a quality “brand” to be connected with the Takoradi Polytechnic.
At the same time, he said communities in the region had countless needs for which they sought renewed lecturer attitude and staff expertise.
Also, he said the citizens and policy makers rightly expected Takoradi Polytechnic to bring its expertise to bear on the challenges that faced the growing and amazingly complex region.
The national stature will grow if they were able to live up to the expectation in the region, whose capital Takoradi, is now the fastest growing and most economically and culturally vibrant area in the country.
Dr Oduro said whenever citizens of the region thought about higher education, they should automatically turn to Takoradi Polytechnic first.
He announced that the polytechnic council had begun plans for Takoradi Polytechnic’s first major fundraising campaign.
He explained that an important element in the planning process with the Takoradi Polytechnic Endowment Fund Foundation would be setting the highest possible overall campaign fundraising goal, which must be set only after careful analysis.
The Rector of the Takoradi Polytechnic, Rev. Professor Daniel A. Nyarko said management recognised the role the media was playing not only for the orderly development of the polytechnic, but for the nation as a whole.