The Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Shani Alhassan Shaibu, has stated that the government is determined to enhance the conditions of service for lecturers and other staff of the technical universities.

"Government does appreciate the needs for such adjustments in terms of remuneration and is accordingly engaging the leadership of Teachers of Technical Universities (TTU) on the issue.

"For this reason, I will urge the Technical University lecturers to appreciate efforts that government is making and lessen their agitation", he urged staff of TTU.

Alhaji Shaibu said when such agitations were embarked upon, it sent negative image to government and created the impression that the government was not doing anything regarding their conditions of service.

He therefore urged lecturers of the technical universities to be circumspect in their push for what they thought was due them.

Congregation

Alhaji Shaibu who stated this when he addressed the third congregation ceremony of the Tamale Techncal Universty (TaTU) in Tamale last Saturday, said the government would also ensure the full payment of the Tier Two pension of lecturers of the technical universities.

He further stated that the government would also provide the needed logistic support for technical universities to live up to expectation.

He stated further that it was common knowledge that enrolments had increased and it was the expectation of the government that the technical universities would rise to the occasion.

Job market

He congratulated those graduating from the TaTU and urged them to come out as employment creators instead of employment seekers.

The Vice-Chancellor (VC) of TaTU, Professor (Prof) Abass Braimah, in his address, said the university would continue to train graduates who were industry ready with hands-on skills, knowledgeable and competent to go out there to create jobs for themselves and others.

He said the university had set up targeted goals to mount industry-required and demand-driven programmes within the confines of its niche area of agricultural engineering and related fields.

Programme

Prof Braimah announced that the university had received approval and accreditation for 12 more additional programmes in various fields of engineering and technology, and expressed the hope that they would be mounted in the coming 2021/2022 academic year.

Among the programmes, he said, were Bachelor of Technology (B-Tech) in Information Technology, Welding and Fabrication, Food Science Technology, Sustainable Agriculture, Architectural Wood and Furniture Production and Automotive Engineering.

Graduates

In all a total of 992 male and female students graduated from the university and were awarded degrees in various categories of B-Tech, Higher National Diploma (HND) and professional diplomas in various disciplines, with some obtaining first class.