Students of Technical Universities and Polytechnics yesterday embarked on a demonstration in Accra to demand for the constitution of governing councils for their institutions.
According to the students, the absence of these councils continues to have an adverse effect on the operations of the institutions, resulting in a stalling of their graduation and issuance of certificates.
The demonstration is part of a nationwide order given by the leadership of the Ghana National Union of Technical Students (GNUPS) for students to boycott lectures until the government constitutes the councils.
The students who constitute the 2015/16 and 2016/2017 academic batch say the demonstration has become necessary due to the government’s inability to constitute governing councils of the Technical Universities and Polytechnics who have the sole mandate to issue their certificates to them.
About 20,000 students from the eight Technical Universities and Polytechnics who graduated last year still do not have certificates to enable them to look for jobs because there are no councils to ratify the certificates.
Mr Rahaman Ibrahim, Coordinating Secretary of GNUPS, in a statement to announce the demonstration and the boycotting of lectures said, “GNUPS is utterly disappointed in the failure of the government to put up the governing council of the various Technical Universities and Polytechnics.”
“The Union has followed this issue for more than three months now, but the government keeps failing to put up these councils. It is evident that the government is not interested in the welfare of technical universities and polytechnic students.
The absence of the governing councils which significantly hampers the smooth operations of these institutions is enough evidence to prove our case of government’s disinterest in technical education,” he said.
The Public Relations Officer of the Union, Mr Andrews Obeng Twumasi said that the fate of the students remains in limbo since authorities sit unconcerned.
“This is unacceptable, and we demand that the right thing must be done as soon as possible. It is also worthy of note that, a lot of these graduates have completed their mandatory national services and still have no certificate to either look for a job or further their education,” he said.
By Francis Tandoh/adrdaily.com
