The Registrar of Takoradi Polytechnic, Sylvia Oppong-Mensah, has described as problematic the policy directive that prevents WASSCE applicants with D-7 and E-8 grades from gaining admissions into the country’s polytechnics. 

According to the first female registrar of the Polytechnic, although the cut off point for admissions is Aggregate 30, some students with aggregate 15 or better, are denied admissions simply because they may have E-8 or D-7, in one of the three main core subjects - English, Mathematics and Science.

However some applicants with aggregate 24 or 30 from the five subjects are offered admissions by the dictates of the policy. According to her, this situation affected the rejected students psychologically, as parents were also forced to spend additional funds to register their wards for remedial classes.

She was even more concerned about the fact that some of the rejected students may have opted for purely technical courses that do not require exceptional passes in English or Science.

Mrs Sylvia Oppong-Mensah was speaking at a seminar organised by the Takoradi Polytechnic Chapter of the Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana, POTAG, on the theme, “The New Policy Directive on non-Admission of WASSCE applicants with D-7 and E-8, and its impact on Polytechnic Education.”

The seminar was part of activities to climax Takoradi Polytechnic POTAG’s week celebration. According to the Registrar, the directive had severe impact on polytechnic education, with statistics showing that as at October 28, 2013, out of a total of 19,645 applicants, only about 5,762 representing 29.30% qualified for admission into the country’s ten polytechnics. She said this led to a drastic reduction in the number of students admitted therefore rendering some of the departments more or less without students while the remaining had just a handful of students admitted.

According to the Registrar, although public outcry from POTAG, particularly Takoradi Polytechnic Chapter, Rectors of Polytechnics, GNUPS and the general public necessitated discussions initiated by the Ministry of Education, National Council for Tertiary Education, National Accreditation Board, with the Council of Rectors of Polytechnics instructing the Polytechnics to give conditional admission to the applicants who are within the acceptable aggregate of 30 or better to undertake a three months access course or remedial programme while pursuing the HND Programme.

The Registrar is however of the view that the conditional admission policy is flout with some implementation challenges. She explained that the directive to withdraw a conditional student who fails the three months special course while on the HND Programme is problematic because it contravenes NABTEX’s own regulations, which stipulates that a student who fails four or more courses at the end of any semester (except in the first semester, first year) shall be put on probation and not completely withdrawn.

According to her, “the three months special access course is unnecessary because the ‘so called’ average student is overburdened to handle two programmes at the same time. The probability that the student may have academic challenge combining both may be high”.

Mrs Sylvia Oppong-Mensah says the conditional admission policy may not apply next year, and is worried that the D-7 and E-8 Policy with its effects, would still hold. She warns that a strict adherence to the policy for the 2014/2015 academic year, may deny good students from gaining admission as an applicant with aggregate 12 may have had As, Bs and E-8 in one core and is denied admission.

She added that due to the irregularity in the receipt of Government subvention, the Polytechnics heavily rely on the fees from students to run the institution, so the high number of qualified applicants admitted and meeting the quota, the more the income generated.

In another development, the Takoradi Polytechnic Chapter of POTAG, led by its President Michael Appiah, has presented some items including bed sheets, benches, and toiletries to the Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital as part of activities to climax their POTAG Week Celebrations.