Authorities of the Kumasi Technical University are appealing to government to ensure the timely release of GETFund allocations to the school to ensure the needed infrastructural expansion.
The Vice Chancellor of the school, Prof Osei-Wusu Achaw has attributed the infrastructural deficit facing the school to the case where in recent years, government has failed to provide the school with the allocated GETFund.
According to him, the non-release of the funds is having a significant impact on the school’s finances in the wake of the growing population of the university.
“A challenge we are facing is non-release of GETFund allocation to the university. In the last three and half years or so, out of the over 4 million Ghana cedis allocated to the university in GETFund commitment to fund a 17 million Ghana cedis faculty of creative arts projects, GETFund has paid only 2 million Ghana cedis to the university.”
“The non-release of GETFund allocation is having a serious toll on the finances of the university. This has hampered our ability to expand infrastructure to meet the growing students population of the university,” Prof Osei-Wusu Achaw stated.
Another concern the school wants to be addressed is the issue of recruitment of lecturers.
The Finance Minister, during the presentation of the 2023 budget disclosed that government will freeze the employment of civil and public servants from January 2023.
The decision by the government according to the Finance Minister forms parts of government’s expenditure rationalization in the 2023 budget.
It is on the back of this hiring halt that the management of the Kumasi Technical University (KsTU) has appealed to the government to grant the institution the opportunity to employ more lecturers to replace those who have retired.
According to the management, the university has been making do with very few teachers against thousands of students which may hinder the quality of professionals trained by the institution.
“Among the challenges we face is insufficient staff to run the university’s program. The average staff-to-student ratio of the university now stands at 1 to 41 across all faculties against the standard number of 1 to 18 in some programs such as engineering. The result is that the effectiveness of staff to students interaction in the university is adversely affected which can affect the quality of graduates that we churn out. I am aware that the government in view of the current economic hardship facing the nation has put a freeze on employment for the year 2023. However, we implore the government to grant us leave to recruit to replace retired staff of the university,” Prof Osei-Wusu Achaw added.
The Vice chancellor, Prof. Osei-Wusu Achaw made the appeal when he outlined some challenges facing the institution as part of his speech during the institution’s 18th Congregation.
A total of thousand five hundred and sixty-seven (1567) graduands were awarded with various certificates on Wednesday, 21st December 2023 at the 18th Congregation of the University.
Speaking at the event, the Chancellor of the University, Dr. Kwame Addo Kufuor on his part urged the graduands to acquire the requisite skills that will enable them to be self-employed in order to help strengthen the private sector.
“ For the generality of you the graduands, it is our expectation that you acquire skills that will position you to be self dependent and to develop to a level of being able to establish your own businesses so as to strengthen the private sector of the Ghanaian economy,” said Dr. Kwame Addo Kufuor, Chancellor, Kumasi Technical University.
Source: Modern Ghana
