Govt asked to intervene in Wa Polytechnic disputes

The Wa Polytechnic branch of the Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN) of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has appealed to the government to intervene in the many disputes within the administration of the institution to enable it to develop.

At least three court cases, two of them involving the registrar and the rector, were said to have left many issues of the school in limbo.

Wa Polytechnic did not feature among the first group of polytechnics that attained the criteria necessary for their elevation to university status.

At a news conference in Wa, the President of the Wa Polytechnic TEIN, Issahaku Karifa Salim, said internal issues had impeded the growth of the school despite the government’s investments in infrastructure and supplies needed to smoothly run the school.

He said although the Polytechnic Act granted every polytechnic in the country autonomous status, “the Wa Polytechnic has failed in the utilisation of that authority to develop the institution”.

He said  its library, for instance, was still waiting to be inaugurated and handed over although the library was completed at least two years ago.

Mr Salim, who was flanked by two other executive members, said it did not appear the government could be blamed for conditions that the polytechnic had brought upon itself.

He said it was necessary for the institution to begin an introspection exercise that should include taking stock of the issues that had taken important personalities to court and resolving those issues within the shortest possible time to allow the system to function properly for the school to develop.

He said the democratic circumstances of the country would not permit the government to force its will on an autonomous institution such as the Wa Polytechnic, and that it was incumbent on the various parties involved in the unfortunate circus to tune their minds towards resolving matters.