By: Nana Kwame Osei Asare
I consider that this
design of discrimination and neglect of the plight of polytechnic students
towards our right to quality education, as enshrined in what is supposed to be
the supreme law of the country, offends against reason and is unacceptable from
every point of view.
Looked at it from the point of view of justice, it is clearly unjust that the
poor innocent students who have paid partly for what is our fundamental right
are been punished for the guilt of perhaps other people. While our fellows in
building the nation (university students) in the future have received prompt
and immediate solutions to every problem which confronts them, the polytechnic
students have been treated with gross relegation at the peril of our career
pursuit.
Successive Governments in Ghana from the pre-independence era till today have
all emphasized the importance of formal education as a means to rapid national
development. Hence, the colonial government placed a first-rate on education,
especially, technical education. This explains the establishment of technical
institutes in the 1950s to train the needed technicians and technologists for
the accelerated development of the country. It is worthy to note that to meet
the needs of the rapidly expanding railway lines and mining activities in
Ghana, technical institutes were established in Accra, Takoradi and Kumasi.
In 1963, the Accra, Takoradi and Kumasi Technical Institutes were re-designated
as Polytechnics without any legal backing. Two others at Tamale and Ho enjoyed
the polytechnic status in 1984 and 1986 respectively. Cape Coast Polytechnic
which was planned as a Polytechnic from inception was opened in 1986
(Nsiah-Gyabaah, 2005). These six second-cycle Polytechnics were elevated to
tertiary status under the Polytechnic Law of 1992, without any upgrading in
terms of facilities or staff. Later, in 1997, Sunyani and Koforidua Technical
Institutes became Polytechnics and enjoyed similar tertiary status. The
establishment of Bolgatanga and Wa Polytechnics (in 1999 and 2000 respectively)
ensured that there is a Polytechnic in each on the ten administrative regions
of Ghana.
It is therefore notably and woebegone that the central focus of the polytechnic
education which is career-oriented has been misplaced and as such it is very
bewildering for its continues existence when clearly not just I but all who
have gone through the polytechnic education can say that all stake holders have
placed a disdaining trademark on the multitudinous graduates of the
polytechnic.
Our propensity to play our role as dauntlessly as any other educational product
has also been treated with inequity comparatively with our colleagues from the
universities which clearly is in contradiction to the provision of the enabling
act of parliament 745 which establishes the polytechnics as tertiary
institutions and has since 2007 replaced the PNDC LAW 321.
The “polytricktians” tried to be sycophantic with the plight of the
pacesetter-graduates who agitated for a career path way by the introduction of
the Bachelor of Technology programmes (B-Tech). However the inflexible approach
to accreditation adopted by the authorities has reduced opportunities for
career progression for such graduates. Regrettably, over four years down the
line, no Polytechnic has been allowed to mount B-Tech programmes in business
and the social sciences. The universities, both public and private, have been
having a field day in mounting HND and B-Tech top-up programmes for Polytechnic
graduates without the requisite practical content in the curriculum. They turn
around and ostensibly accuse the polytechnics of producing unemployable
graduates.
Are we therefore not right to tap from our bestowed faculty to call these
happening "educational racism or genocide"? There are ten polytechnic
across the country, but soon they will be no more because everybody will go to
the university....maybe to reduce the number of pages in the constitution by
scraping of the polytechnic act of parliament 745 (2007)
