KNUST lecturers cane students, others ordered to kneel in rain
Former students of KNUST have catalogued abuses students suffer which triggered violent protest Monday.
A seven-page press statement by the ‘Concerned Fellows of Kantanga Hall’ said KNUST lecturers are known to cane students.
The statement submitted links to video evidence of caning of some students including females. Some believe the caning was light-hearted and jovial.
But the students who are former residents of Katanga Hall maintain, the practice of caning is well known and ‘not surprising’.
It was punishment for singing ‘ jama’ songs and allowing ‘infiltration’ by continuing students who do not reside on the main campus, the statement further alleges.
KNUST has become a ghost town after the Ashanti Regional Security Council imposed a curfew and shut down the school indefinitely.
hoto: KNUST students have alleged, school authorities threaten to revoke accomodation status of students or withold their results as a way of punishing dissent.
The students say as important stakeholders in the second largest university in Ghana, their views are not taken into consideration by the university authorities led by Vice-Chancellor Prof. Obiri Danso who is facing calls to resign.
A student has said duly elected hall executives not favourable to school authorities were removed from office and replaced by first-year students.
The concerned fellows of Kantanga Hall criticised the University for shaming and sanctioning four female students for accommodating males in their rooms at odd hours. They wondered how the university would find that offensive after converting the previously male hall into a mixed one.
The university has been on a collision course with students following attempts to halt and ban ‘jama sessions’ on campus – a more than 50-year-old practice popularly called ‘morale’.
Source: Adom
