Professor Kwesi Yankah, Minister of State in-charge of Tertiary Education
The Sunyani Technical University Alumni Association says the current academic curricula used in the country’s technical universities do not emphasise on practical sessions in the grading system of students.
To this end, the association has proposed that the current academic curricula of the technical universities should be reviewed to embrace about 60 per cent hands-on practical oriented approach rather than theory.
Also, technical universities should be well-resourced with industrial machines and workshops to train students on the application of theory learnt.
These were contained in a communiqué issued by the association at the end of its maiden home-coming summit held in Sunyani.
The communiqué signed by the Secretary of the association, Frank Owusu, added that “deliberate attempt should be made by government to channel major parts of GETFund resources to improve facilities of technical universities in Ghana to make them more competitive and technologically compliant”.
“The formula for disbursing GETFund resources always favours the traditional universities in Ghana which are already well-endowed in terms of facilities.”
Besides, the communiqué said, the criteria for promotion of staff in the technical universities should be reviewed to embrace innovations that will contribute to the promotion of indigenous technology.
“The criteria for promotion of staff in the technical universities still follow that of the traditional universities instead of options that will promote indigenous technological inventions.”
The communiqué expressed worry that most technical universities in Ghana are not well-resourced to cope with the requirements of the technical university modules and curricula and this has “created production of engineering graduates with little or no employable skills to fulfill the demands of the industry”.
It observed also that “Ghana benefits from about only 10% of its tapped natural resources due to insufficient technical know-how to manage our natural resources.”
Moreover, the country “loses a lot of its raw materials to waste due to low knowledge and patronage of indigenous technology and further loses a lot in terms of foreign trade earnings due to the fact that almost 90% of Ghanaian products are imported outside the country”.
The Sunyani Technical University (STU) held its maiden Alumni homecoming summit from 15 to 17th December 2017 on the theme: ‘Technical universities, solution to Ghana’s industrialisation and unemployment: the way forward.’
Government officials, employers and experts from various backgrounds joined members of the association to mark the occasion which took place at the Kwasi Oppong Conference Hall of the university.
DANiel DziRASAH, SUNYANI
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