About A Thousand T–Poly Students Unable To Graduate

About one thousand students from various departments of the Tamale Polytechnic who completed their courses at the end of the 2013 academic year reportedly could not take part in the institutions 8^th Congregation held recently, Savannahnews has uncovered. 

Reasons accounting for this, according to our investigations, are due to affected students’ inability to meet a number of requirements and directives by the Polytechnic and external bodies such as the National Board for Professional and Technical Examinations (NABPTEX) and the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC).

These requirements, according to notices posted on the noticeboard of for instance, the Accountancy Department, include: failure by 103 students to submit copies of their results slips; the results of 38 students yet to be verified by WAEC; and failure by 59 students to better their WASSCE English and Mathematics results prior to gaining admission into the Tamale Polytechnic.

Other reasons assigned to the inability by students to participate in the 8^th Congregation of the Polytechnic are: 84 students yet to have their results deliberated upon whereas about 30 others had their names omitted by NABPTEX.

Majority of the affected students are from the Accountancy Department whiles the rest are from the Marketing, Secretaryship & Management, Engineering, Statistics, Mathematics & Science, Hotel, Catering & Institutional Management, Fashion & Design, and other departments.

Besides, of the total 913 students who were lucky enough to graduate on March 15, 2014 with their Higher National Diploma certificates in various disciplines, many of them were unlucky to take their certificates home due to some challenges.

Further checks by Savannahnews indicated that, certificates for some graduands were not ready for them to take because others had their class exchanged with other people.

Rector of Tamale Polytechnic

When contacted, Head of Public Relations of the Tamale Polytechnic Abdulai Wumbei confirmed that, a good number of students could not take part in the 8^th Graduation ceremony of the school.

Although he admitted authorities are concerned, he said the situation is largely to be blamed on the negligence of some affected students and/or too much workload on regulatory bodies such as NABPTEX and WAEC. “There are instances where students submit forms with pictures for their certificates but when the certificates are brought back, some of the certificates will be bearing different pictures,” he added.

Mr. Wumbei also noted that, some of the students who were denied the opportunity to graduate because they failed in English and Mathematics at WASSCE refused to better their results, which was a condition set for them by authorities to meet before they complete school. “So if such students haven’t better their grades, then they still have to do that otherwise the Polytechnic cannot award them certificates”, he stressed.

He however, indicated that a committee set up to investigate the cause of these problems and make recommendations, had just submitted their report to the Polytechnic Academic Unit and very soon, the problems would be permanently addressed in order to avoid any recurrence in subsequent graduations.

Meanwhile, of the total that graduated, 20 students had first class, 289 had second class upper and 517 had second class low whereas 87 obtained a pass.

The Rector of the Tamale Polytechnic Dr. Abdulai Salifu Asuro, in his report to Council announced that, three programmes including HND Media and Mass Communication; HND Information and Communication Technology; and Association of Business Managers and Administrators (ABMA) had been introduced in the 2013/2014 academic year.

Adding, he said: “In order to continue to complement our local industry with targeted specialized manpower, more technical programmes are being processed to be run, come next academic year, 2014/2015. The HND Fashion and Design, HND Purchasing and Supply and Welding and Fabrication have reached the advanced stages of gaining accreditation. Other relevant Bachelor of Technology programmes are also being processed for accreditation.”

In her address, Minister for Education Professor Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman, appealed to traditional rulers in the Sagnarigu Traditional Area where the Tamale Polytechnic is located, to kindly stay–off the land they willingly gave out for the establishment of the school many years ago.  This was in response to recent protest by students against the Sagnarigu Chief for his attempt to build a palace on the campus of the Polytechnic.

She also state that, plans were far advanced by government to upgrade all Polytechnics in the country into Technical Universities. “…of course, this intervention is not intended for the Technical Universities to run the same programmes as the traditional universities do but rather to create a conducive platform where theory is transformed into practice, resulting in the provision of quality goods and services”, the minister emphasised.