The Bolgatanga Polytechnic urgently needs an auditorium and a modern laboratory to enhance teaching and learning, the institution’s Governing Council made the appeal on Saturday. It specifically asked the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) to help the school acquire those facilities. The Chairman of the Polytechnic Council, Mr. Donald Adabre, made the appeal during the school’s second congregation held on campus at Sumbrungu, near Bolgatanga, on Saturday. Whilst commending government for supporting the school with infrastructure, the Council Chairman said the Polytechnic - being one of the youngest in the country - needed special attention from government to make it credible and enable it stand the test of time. He indicated that the Polytechnic has full and competent staff, but stressed that one of the major problems confronting the institution was the lack of a modern purpose auditorium and a modern laboratory complex which makes teaching and learning difficult. He said few students applied for the Science and Engineering courses and blamed this on poor background of science students in the second cycle institutions in the Polytechnic’s catchments area. Mr. Adabre expressed worry about the poor linkages between Polytechnics and industries, saying, polytechnics were not in touch with industries when it came to designing and implementing curriculum. The situation, he maintained, was making it difficult for many polytechnic students to meet the needs of industries on the job market. He said the situation where polytechnic graduates were made to further their education in the traditional universities defeated the purpose of Polytechnic education which has “an entirely different focus and orientation.” The Acting Rector of the Polytechnic, Mr. John Bosco Azigwe, indicated that in the 2010/2011 academic year, the institution introduced an innovative HND Procurement, Logistics and Management programme, which is the first of its kind in all polytechnics in Ghana. “Our objective is to address the needs of procurement and logistics professionals whose relevance has increased with the promulgation of the Public Procurement Act,” he emphasized. The Rector indicated that the Statistics Department of the Polytechnic was collaborating with the APIDON Institute in Burkina Faso to teach Statistics in French and English as part of its international collaboration package. “The School has also signed a memorandum of understanding with Nanchang University in China for staff and student collaboration and exchange of teaching and resources”. Mr. Azigwe indicated that through the community College initiative of the United States Embassy, five students have been selected to study in the United States of America, this year. The second congregation awarded Higher National Diploma Certificates to 286 grandaunts out of which, 79 pursued science and engineering programmes, representing 27 per cent. Source: GNA/Ghana