TAMALE POLYTECHNIC IN DEEP CRISIS

The Tamale Polytechnic (T-Poly) is in deep crisis as most of its infrastructures built in somewhere 1950s including lecture halls and administration blocks are seriously deteriorating.

The current T-Poly campus and all the structures on it (accept a few), were the same structures that existed when it was a Technical Training School before it was turned into a Polytechnic in the 1990s.

The structures and the general environment of the School do not depict a modern day Polytechnic or Tertiary Institution and also completely undermine quality teaching and learning.

All the buildings, roofing sheets, trees and the few flowers on the campus are overwhelmed with dust, thereby painting a picture of a neglected institution.

A deep throat source at the School hinted the paper that some students who had gained admissions into the Polytechnic in time past from Accra, Kumasi, Sunyani and Takoradi had ever refused admissions after visiting the extremely ugly looking campus.

The Tamale Polytechnic Savannahnews can confirm is now one of the most wretched public tertiary institutions in Ghana, even though it is one of the oldest in the country. It has a student population of about 10,000 but over 95% of them have no hostel accommodation including their lecturers.

As a result, the Principal of the Tamale Polytechnic, Alhaji Yakubu Seidu Deliga has passionately appealed to government to turn special attention to the School and provide modern infrastructure that would enhance quality teaching and learning and also redeem its image.

According to the Principal, the School had carved a nitch for itself due to its excellent academic performance and quality of programmes being ran at the school, the Polytechnic continues to suffer numerous challenges especially in the area of physical infrastructure.

Since it was changed from a Technical School in the 1990s to a Polytechnic, the Tamale Poly he noted had not seen any meaningful infrastructural boost apart from a few lecture halls put up by the GETfund.

That notwithstanding, the school has no Auditorium, modern library, computer training centre and hostel facilities.

Speaking in an interview with Savannahnews at the End of Year Get-together of Management and Staff of the Tamale Polytechnic, the Principal Alhaji Yakubu Seidu Deliga complained about the poor and inadequate lecture halls, which compared some students to peep through windows during lectures, the poor road networks on campus, poor lighting system and insufficient academic staff among others.

He observed that apart from getting the requisite infrastructure, the construction of the roads in the school was one major thing that could also beautify the campus of Tamale Polytechnic.

Alhaji Deliga on the other hand, appealed to government to provide staff accommodations and also design a “special programme” to train lecturers with lower qualifications at the Polytechnic to meet the required standard.

The Principal however commended the Lecturers for their dedication towards making the Tamale Polytechnic a key competitor among other institutions.

Meanwhile, the Lecturers and their management at the Get-together, were entertained by the 2005 Best Raggae Musician, Sharif Ghali as they danced their hearts out and feast alongside. However, some deserving teaching and non-teaching staff including the Principal were awarded for their meritorious services.