General News of Monday, 2 October 2017
Source: citifmonline.com
2017-10-02
Professor Kwesi Yankah, Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education,
The Minister of State In charge Of Tertiary Education, Professor Kwesi Yankah, has said his outfit is ready to present the draft Bill that will legally convert Cape Coast and Tamale Polytechnics to fully fledged Universities to Parliament.
“As I am speaking now, a Bill is ready to be laid before Parliament when parliament resumes next week,” he said to Citi News.
“It is only a matter of time that Parliament will come in and then pass the Bill into law. So that not only will Tamale and Cape Coast be technical universities just by executive fiat or instrument, but also by law. So it is a matter of time” he noted.
“Before any university comes into being, it has to be backed by law. The government first upgraded the six polytechnics into technical universities. Cape Coast and Tamale were not part of it. But the institutions do not come into being until an act of Parliament passes them.”
The Cape Coast and Tamale Polytechnics initially did not meet the 16 point criteria laid down for qualification for conversion, which assessed the varying levels of infrastructure and capacity.
After missing out, the two institutions complained to government and accused it of masterminding to get them out of the conversion.
Prof. Yankah acknowledged their complaints saying, “from a distance, you will appreciate their concerns. It will sound as if, yes we were all made polytechnics but it looks like you are demoting us, you are taking us back to a place we were long ago.”
