Wa Poly matriculates 509 fresh students
The Wa Polytechnic has formally admitted 509 fresh students into the institution to pursue various Higher National Diploma (HND) Programmes in the 2013/2014 academic year.
The programmes include; Accountancy, Secretaryship and Management Studies, Information and Communication Studies; Building Technology,; Estate Management, Civil Engineering, Agricultural Engineering,; Dispensing Technology, and Industrial Art,.
The Polytechnic also admitted 160 students to undertake non-tertiary programmes.
Professor Godwin. K. S. Aflapkui, Rector of the Polytechnic said two new tertiary programmes, namely; Industrial Art and Dispensing Technology, have been introduced following their accreditation by the National Accreditation Board.
He said the 2013/2014 academic year should have started on October 7, but had to be shifted to October 21, 2013 because of difficulties in attracting the requisite number of students for the various programmes.
This is because many applicants did not obtain credit passes in the core subjects such as English Language, Core Mathematics and Integrated Science.
Prof. Aflakpui said as at 13th September, 2013 only 5,762 out of the 20,000 applicants had met the minimum entry requirements set by the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) across all the 10 Polytechnics in the country.
He said the alarming situation could have led to the closure of some Departments in all the Polytechnics, adding that this then compelled the Conference of Rectors of Polytechnics (CORP) to make efforts to remedy the situation.
“We faced outright rejection on many fronts but our relentless appeals finally fell on some sympathetic ears, hence, the moratorium by the Ministry of Education to the Polytechnics to include grades D7 and E8 for only the core subjects in computing the maximum aggregate of 30 in admitting for this academic year only”, the Rector noted.
He indicated, however, that “there was an albatross on the neck” of those who were offered this conditional admission to pursue any of the HND programmes.
This is because they have an additional responsibility of taking what has become known as the “Amended ACCESS” programme.
Such students will attend lectures on their regular HND programmes, and depending on the number of core subjects in which a student obtained a grade D7 or E8, such a student is then required to attend remedial classes on those core subjects.
Prof. Aflakpui, therefore, advised the students to develop positive mental attitudes, plan and use their time judiciously, to enable them pass their examinations in the “Amended ACCESS” to qualify them to continue with the regular HND programme.
Source: GNA