The Kumasi Technical University is pleading with the government to ensure the prompt disbursement of GETFund funding to the institution in order to support the required infrastructure expansion.
The school’s vice chancellor, Prof. Osei-Wusu Achaw, has said that the government’s failure to give the institution its allotted GETFund in recent years is to blame for the infrastructure deficit the school is currently experiencing.
In light of the university’s expanding student body, he claims that the non-release of the cash is significantly impacting the school’s budget.
“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.
The issue of hiring lecturers is another issue that the institution needs to be addressed.
During the budget presentation for 2023, the finance minister said that the government would freeze civil service and government jobs beginning in January 2023.
According to the Finance Minister, the decision is a part of the government’s effort to rationalize its spending in the 2023 budget.
The management of the Kumasi Technical University (KsTU) has pleaded with the government to allow the institution the chance to hire new academics in order to replace those who have retired as a result of this hiring freeze.
The university’s management claims that because there are so few lecturers for so many students, the quality of the professionals that are trained may suffer.
“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 further stated.
In his statement during the university’s 18th Congregation, Vice Chancellor Prof. Osei-Wusu Achaw made the request while outlining some of the issues the institution is facing.
At the 18th Congregation of the University on Wednesday, December 21, 2023, a total of 1,056 (1567) graduates received various certificates.
Speaking during the celebration, Dr. Kwame Addo Kufuor, the university’s chancellor, advised the graduates to develop the necessary skills to become self-employed in order to support the growth of 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: Citinewsroom
