Tension at Accra Poly

Baring any intervention, lecturers of Accra Polytechnic will embark on a demonstra­tion today to press for the election of a Vice Rector for the polytechnic but management says the action will be illegal.

Over the past week, the lecturers have been on a collision course with the polytechnic’s management and council over the position of Vice Rector, expressing the fear that the council, chaired by Professor Josuah Alabi who is also Rector of the Institute of Professional Studies (IPS), is trying to impose a Vice Rector on the polytechnic.

The lecturers are saying that the appointment of anybody to that position has always been done by convocation and want the status quo maintained; failure which will compel them to hit the streets.

However, when DAILY GUIDE visited the polytechnic located opposite the Ghana Trades Union Congress building at Kinbu, Accra, yesterday, Samuel N Sundong, who was delegated by the Rector to speak, stated that “the lecturers’ demands are unjustifiable.”

He said the Polytechnics Act 2007 (Act) 745 gives the council the powers to review or amend the polytechnic’s statutes as and when they deemed it necessary so that the institution can be efficiently managed to serve the needs of society better.

He stated that under the new dispensation, the council has the power to set up a committee to search for a Vice Rector and make recommendation for appointment by the council, adding “the situation where the Vice Rector is elected by convocation has been amended where Act745 came into being.”

Mr. Sundong noted “the council” has the mandate to appoint the Vice Rector and other senior members to administrative positions,” adding “what they arc agitating for have all been taken care of in the new Act.”

He said the council and management or the polytechnic met the agitating lecturers yesterday to deliberate on the issue but the lecturers stood their grounds and did’ not compromise and still stood by their position.

Mr. Sundong further said the council has already made it clear that it does not intend to go against the Polytechnics’ Act, adding, “the lecturers have notified us that they will be embarking on a demonstration but I do not think it is right because if they do, it is the innocent students who are going to suffer.

“It is not that the council has made any appointment yet for the position of a Vice Rector. Rather it is the changes in the statutes that are bringing all the problems.

He said during the review or the statutes, the lecturers, who are now agitating, had representatives on the review committee and added that the search committee that will be appointed by the council to look for a Vice Rector will also include representatives of the lecturers as the act mandates.

“The new act ensures that there is transparency in every­ thing we do here. It does not make room for anybody to manipulate anything,” he emphasized adding “the lecturers should rather channel their energies into fighting for better condition of service for members. They should fight for things that will interest all of us.”

Source: Daily Guide