Students of the Wa Polytechnic on Friday demonstrated through the principal streets of Wa to express their displeasure over the absence of some key officers of the Polytechnic.
The students say the institution has been without a rector, a council chairman and a registrar, for six months now, a situation they say is affecting the daily operations of the institution.
The President of the Wa Polytechnic Students’ Representative Council (SRC), Tinus Touzie, in a petition to the Upper West Regional Minister, Alhaji Amidu Sulemana said the three were asked to step aside because of a court case.
Tinus Touzie said “these people are supposed to ensure the institution functions as a normal tertiary institution as stated under the 1992 constitution of Ghana and the Polytechnic Act 745, 2007 and the Statutes of Wa Polytechnic”, he stated.
He said the situation is not only affecting teaching and learning at the school, but is preventing the SRC from accessing its own funds because some of the officers absent were signatories to the account.
Touzie added that graduates of the Polytechnic may not able to hold the matriculation/graduation ceremonies for new and graduating students.
In addition, the absence of these principal officers had also slowed down procedures in preparing the Polytechnic towards its conversion into a technical University and also limited the supply of logistics for teaching and learning.
It has also led to the cancelation of the incoming annual inter-polytechnic games that was to be hosted by the institution as well as caused the abandonment of some projects such as a student hostel facility and library complex.
He called on the President, Members of Parliament (MPs) from the region, the Chief Justice, the Minister of Education and other stakeholders of the Polytechnic to help address the situation to prevent the institution from collapsing.
Receiving the petition on behalf of the President, Alhaji Sulemani thanked the students for using the appropriate procedure to channel their grievances without any acts of violence.
He said government cannot overlook the court process, but assured them that it would do its best to resolve the situation within the shortest possible time.
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By:citifmonline.com/Ghana