The Bolgatanga Polytechnic on Tuesday matriculated 498 students to pursue Higher National Diploma (HND) programmes in various courses for the 2009/2010 academic year.
Out of the number, 11 were females representing 24 per cent of the admission.
Some 129 students were also admitted to pursue various professional courses at the non-tertiary level and another 36 have been enrolled to undertake the pre HND Access Course.
The Rector of the Polytechnic, Prof Paul B. Tanzubil, expressed concern about low enrolment in the sciences and said only 25 per cent of the fresh students would be pursuing courses in the sciences an area which is of greater priority to polytechnics.
He attributed this problem to the fact that science was poorly patronized and only few students advance beyond the senior high school level.
Prof Tanzubil appealed to stakeholders in education in the Region to redouble their efforts in the teaching of the sciences.
He said plans were far advanced by the management of the polytechnic to organize a regional conference before the close of the year to deliberate on the state of science and technology education in the Upper East Region and devise strategies to address the problem.
The Rector said the polytechnic would introduce HND Programmes in Procurement and Logistic Management and Building Technology during the 2010/2011 academic year.
Prof Tanzubil said the polytechnic, which runs HND courses including Applied Art and Science, Business and Management Studies and Engineering, had significantly improved in the quality and quantity of its human resource base.
He said the polytechnic was confronted with some challenges which include poor conditions of service for staff, inadequate infrastructure and very low annual budgetary allocation.
He said the situation where allocation of resources to tertiary institutions was based on student numbers was inimical to the growth of young institutions like Bolgatanga Polytechnic and needed to be reviewed.
The founder Principal of the Polytechnic Mr. Robert Ajene, said there was the need for graduates from polytechnics to study entrepreneurship because one of the cardinal roles of polytechnics was to provide the requisite manpower for development of the nation.
He said there were graduates who had completed tertiary institutions and because of the lack of entrepreneurship skills they could not find employment.
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