KsTU program deferral: Students not telling the truth – SRC president says university's action right

Mr Isaac Mensah, the president of the Students' Representative Council of the Kumasi Technical University (KsTU), has said some of his fellow students are not being truthful about the issues surrounding the decision of the school's management to compel them to defer their programmes for delaying in registering for the semester.

Earlier, KsTU refuted claims of expelling more than 2,000 students due to delayed fee payments.

Instead, the institution clarified that students who failed to register for the Second Semester of the 2022/2023 Academic Year have been requested to defer their programmes.

KsTU emphasised extending registration deadlines multiple times, but a considerable number of students still missed the opportunity.

The initial deadline of May 29, 2023, was extended thrice, with the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) seeking yet another extension.

Despite these efforts, 648 students remained unregistered by August 7, 2023, dispelling the earlier claim of 2,000.

The decision to enforce this was made by the University's Academic Board, not the Chancellor, Dr. Kwame Addo Kufuor.

KsTU asserted its policy of student withdrawal for non-registration but opted for leniency, urging affected students to defer their studies.

However, the affected students intend demonstrating against the school, something the SRC president finds distasteful.

Mr Mensah told Valentina Ofori-Afriyie on Class91.3FM's mid-day news 12 Live that: "I know we, students, sometimes we act in a way that instead of us saying the truth, we hesitate in telling the truth".

According to him, the university is right, per its Consitution, to have the affected students defer their programmes, but noted that the SRC intervened.

However, he complained that instead of some of the students taking their grievances to his office for resolution using the right channels, they did not avail themselves of that opportunity.

"How many of these students who want to demonstrate engaged me one on one?" he questioned.

He said those who engaged his office were registered successfully, adding that while the SRC paid about GHS80,000 for some students, the school also paid about GHS400,000+ for some of the students.

Mr Mensah said he was "so sad" upon hearing that the students he was fighting for were planning to demonstrate against the school.

-classfmonline.com