K' Poly closed down by students' agitation

Kumasi, May 19, GNA - The authorities of the Kumasi Polytechnic have announced the immediate closure of the school following three days of students' unrest. All students have, therefore, been ordered to leave the campus b= y mid-day on Wednesday.

The students are allegedly angered by the inability of their management to provide an Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure, for which they had paid money for. Each of them reportedly pays GH¢45.00 a semester towards internet wire= less service and additional computers but these are yet to be provided. For three days, some students burned lorry tyres, invaded examinati= on halls and hurled sachet water at invigilators and the candidates. When the GNA went to the polytechnic on Wednesday morning armed police personnel had been deployed there to prevent destruction of proper= ty.

The school officials declined to talk to the reporters but a signed=

notice by the Registrar, Mr Korankye Mensah, which was sighted, said the decision to close down the institution was taken in consultation with the=

Council Chairman, the Executive Committee and the Heads of Department. This, it said, was necessitated by what it described as "extreme agitati= on of the students" making the campus unsafe, but some students who spoke to=

the GNA on condition that their names would not be mentioned, discounted this, insisting that their protests had so far been peaceful. They claimed they found it completely unacceptable that a student cou= ld be expelled from the examination for owing the school just Ghp 90, while the polytechnic had failed to return huge sums of money collected from them f= or a non-existent project. "This is absolutely unfair and has fuelled our demonstration," they adde= d.