Stop selling handouts to students - Education Minister

Kumasi, June 19, GNA - The Minister of Education, Professor Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang has called for an immediate stop to the sale of handouts by lecturers to students in the country's tertiary institutions.

The Minister said the practice does not only place further financial burden on parents, but also stifled research, originality and independent work by students.

In an address read for her at the 10th congregation of the Kumasi Polytechnic, on Saturday, Professor Opoku Agyeman stated that the practice must stop immediately.

Two thousand five hundred students, who pursued and completed various programmes in Higher National Diploma (HND), Diploma in Business Administration (DBA), Diploma in Computerized Accounting (DCA) and Professional Diploma in Computerized Accounting (PDCA) for the 2013 and 2014 academic years, were presented with their certificates.

She pointed out that, the government had heard the unfair treatment being meted out to students who failed to purchase handouts and said the cries of students against the practice had reached the corridors of government.

The Minister said lecturers could publish their notes into books and place them at the bookshops for sale for interested students to buy.

Professor Opoku Agyeman commended the Kumasi Polytechnic on its achievements, especially in the area of alternative energy production and said the manufacturing of solar bags, capable of charging mobile phones and tablets, and other solar apparels were very encouraging.

She however, advised the management to produce in larger quantities and sell them at affordable prices to the general public.

The Minister advised the graduates to pursue honesty, sincerity, selflessness, hard-work and dedication, in order to be very successful in whatever endeavor they would find themselves.

Professor Nicholas Nsowah-Nuamah, the Rector of the Polytechnic, said the school had built the capacity of its faculty and other staff to become a technical university.

He said KPS computers, mobile phones, laptops and tablets, which were being assembled by students of the polytechnic, were on the market now for sale and urged the public to patronize them.

Professor Kwasi Obiri-Danso, Chairman of the Polytechnic Council, said the focus of the school was to remain as a true hands-on practical training institution where graduates would be trained to acquire state-of-the-art skills for industrial growth and development.

GNA