The Ministry of Education is yet to find a suitable name to replace the ten polytechnics in the country even as plans are far advanced to convert the institutions into universities by next year.
Government in 2016 is expected to convert all the 10 polytechnics into technical universities in a bid to make them offer more practical programmes for developing middle-level manpower to facilitate development.
However, the debate has been whether the converted institutions should be called polytechnics or universities. The argument has been that the former will ensure that the institutions will keep to their core mandate of skills training while the latter will shift that focus.
The technical committee which worked on the conversion of the ten polytechnics into technical universities recommended that the polytechnics be called "technical universities".
But an Associate Dean of Innovation and Industrial Partnership at the Accra Institute of Technology (AIT), Dr. Benjamin Aggrey Ntim, is asking government to maintain the name of the polytechnics as it upgrades their status to a degree-awarding institutes.
He argued that polytechnics have a core mandate to train industry-based students who will be needed at the country's industry and manufacturing sector, for which reason the name should be maintained for the purpose of fulfilling that mandate.
According to him, some developed countries are rather converting their universities to polytechnics citing China as an example, where the country has converted over 600 of its universities into polytechnics because it needs manpower to develop.
The decision to convert the polytechnics to technical universities is tantamount to repositioning the polytechnics within the tertiary education system which requires an expansion of their mission. The establishment of the technical universities is expected to lead to a more diversified higher education landscape with clear mission differentiation.
Dr. Ntim was speaking at a ceremony to sign a memorandum of understanding between AIT and Institution of Engineering Technology of Ghana to facilitate engineering continuing professional capacity development in Ghana.
The partnership, forms part of other institutional arrangements that AIT is pursuing with industry and professional bodies to make its engineering programmes and gradates relevant to the needs of the job market.
"With the rapid pace of growth and advancement in technological knowledge and expertise, continuing education of working professionals in industry is of vital need; staying in the forefront of one's engineering profession requires undergoing continuing career and professional development skill enhancement and update programme of lifelong learning."
Meanwhile polytechnics in the country are faced with a number of challenges. Key among them is their ability to recruit and retain qualified staff with relevant practical or professional experience. This is because the types of skilled professionals the polytechnics require are also those highly sought-after by industry.
In this regard, therefore, the polytechnics are unable to compete for staff with industry, which is able to offer better remuneration packages.
Currently, the government of Ghana spends less than GH�3,000 on a student in a polytechnic per year.
In 2014 the polytechnics were allocated only GH�150,571,282 out of a budget request of GH�325,547,304 -- leaving a funding gap of 54 percent. With a combined student population of 53,078, the amount that government spends on a polytechnic student per year is only GH�2,836.
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