20 Polytechnic Students Arrested By Police

Riot Police today dispersed demonstrating students of polytechnics who had blocked traffic from the main Tudu road to Railway station area.

The windscreens of three police patrol cars were smashed with stones while louver blades of some windows of Accra Polytechnic were broken by the students who had been protesting to push the government to review their grading system. Dr Kofi Kesse Manfo, Greater Accra Regional Police Commander, told the Ghana News Agency the police are looking for the ringleaders of the demonstration.

He said 20 students were arrested and three were injured. "Most of them have now evacuated the school's premises (Accra Poly) while pockets are in town," Mr Manfo said.

Mr Vincent Martey, SRC President of the Cape Coast Polytechnic, told the GNA that there was the need for government to show more commitment toward resolving the impasse between the Polytechnic Students and the government.

He said although the issues confronting the Polytechnics were many, the government had so far been silent on their plight. He said although various committees had been formed by the government, those committees hardly ever came out with reports to ease the situation.

Mr. Martey said the main cause of the clash with the police was when the police insisted on allowing only 30 students into the Castle to present a petition. He said the other students tried to force their way into the Castle, which resulted in the reaction of police reaction. Mr Martey stated that if the government refused to address the situation, the students might have to advise themselves.

Dr Manfo told GNA earlier in the day that the students were arrested when they insisted on entering the Castle to begin a hunger strike at the Castle Gardens. He said the students threw stones at the police and security personnel at the entrance of the Castle and the police responded by spraying water canons on them.

Dr Manfo said he had had four hours of talks with them and tried to convince them not to carry out their hunger strike in the Castle, but they insisted and began their demonstration.

He said the deputy government spokesman Mr Kwabena Agyepong had appealed to the students to stop the demonstration as the government was looking into the matter.

All the polytechnics have been on strike since January and the Ghana National Union of Polytechnics Students (GUNPS) says it would resume lectures on condition that the government suspended the new performance grading system to allow proper negotiation to take place.

"Until there is a temporary suspension of the new grading system, we are not going back to the classrooms, whether it is going to take them a century to come out or not, we shall continue to boycott lecturers," Mr Rashid Yakubu, the National GNUPS President said in January when they embarked on another demonstration.

Under the new performance grading system, 50 per cent is the minimum pass mark. The students, in a petition through the Minister of Education, Prof. Ameyaw-Akumfi, called on President John Agyekum Kufuor to intervene, as a matter of urgency, in the impasse between the Ministry of Education, the National Board of Polytechnic Examination (NABPEX) and the student body.

The students listed six major problems of the polytechnics and said until they were addressed, the new grading system would remain unfair. The problems were the academic progression of the Higher National Diploma (HND) Graduate, job placement of the HND graduate, autonomy of the polytechnics, lack of adequate academic and administrative staff, infrastructure (both academic and residential) and the implementation of Ken P. Brown and Professor F.O. Kwami's reports.

Prof. Ameyaw-Akumfi attributed the problem to communication gap, saying; "it is unfortunate that most of the students are not aware of what the government has started doing about this matter".