TAKORADI Polytechnic has lined up numerous academic programmes and physical infrastructural projects but the achievement of these are hampered by massive encroachment of the school’s lands.
The school’s huge land has been reduced to the extent that it is impossible for it to engage in any physical expansion of structures.
At the moment, the school is on the edge of rolling out other academic programmes in collaboration with City and Guilds and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, both in the United Kingdom as well as other programmes in Bachelor in Procurement Technology and oil and gas related programmes because of the oil find in the Western Region.
According to officials of the polytechnic, these programmes which were designed to meet the modern day demands of the commerce and industry, would have seen an increment in enrolment.
Therefore, the encroachment on the school’s land would be a great setback for future developments.
According to the Rector of the Polytechnic, Rev. Prof. Daniel A. Nyarko, management was putting the necessary process in place to protect and secure the polytechnic’s land.
Land, he said, was very important to the expansion drive of the school and the size of land allocated to the school since its inception in the 60’s should have been secured through proper demarcation and documentation but that was not done.
He said some of other challenges facing the school were student/lecturers accommodation which, he said, was very important to academic work.
The rector said some of the students were residing in areas far away from the campus. In addition the conditions under which some of them studied at their residences were not conducive.
“It will have been the best if we have the financial capabilities to embark on projects such as student/lecturer accommodation, but we are constrained since we have to focus on other areas aimed at enhancing academic work,” he said.
He said one of the strategies being adopted to tackle the students accommodation problem was to invite private investors with good proposals to build hostels operate and transfer.
“But the problem again is that our lands are not properly demarcated, therefore the edges of the supposed school land have been encroached upon,” he said.
He explained that when people look at the school from outside it looked huge but in actual fact the middle of the school had huge stagnant water which divided the school into two.
Rev. Prof. Nyarko said the polytechnic had a very bright future and was well-positioned to train the needed skilled manpower to feed commerce and industry.
He said he would do everything legally acceptable to secure the school’s assets.
Asked whether a private person could invest in the student’s hostel, he said yes, explaining that there were other projects that were uncompleted and that if an investor walks in, there would be no problem.
In the areas of staff accommodation, he said it was a great disincentive for attracting staff to the institution them.
He said even though the institution had a good staff, there was still the need for more, but for the lack of accommodation, it was difficult to attract and retain them.
The rector said the school would put in all efforts to secure the lands for its future expansion.
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