Students asked to conduct themselves positively in the December 7 Election

Dr. Lord Emmanuel Asamoah, Principal of Garden City University College at Kenyase, near Kumasi, has called on students in tertiary institutions to contribute positively to the success of the upcoming general election.

He said there was the need for students to use their superior educational background to educate their friends, relatives, town folks and colleagues to understand the meaning and purpose of national elections so that they do not perceive their political rivals as enemies.

“Your university education will only be meaningful and rewarding in an environment that is peaceful and stable. It will be most unfortunate if you, as enlightened citizens, sink so low as to engage in political violence before, during and after the elections.

“Given your educational background, it will equally be embarrassing for you to be caught involving in malpractices of any kind,” Dr. Asamoah admonished in an address to welcome some 622 freshmen to the University College at Kenyase Saturday.

The freshmen will be reading various courses in Business, Information and Communications Technology and Nursing.

The College last year admitted 250 students.

Dr. Asamoah told the students that the success of their career depended basically on the way they conducted themselves academically, socially and morally.

“Any wrong move in any of these critical areas as students of the University can spell doom for your continued stay at this University”.

He urged them to take their academic work seriously and should not resort to examination malpractices.

He also advised them to stay away from illicit drugs in order not to destroy their future.

Touching on major developments on the educational landscape in the country, the Dr Asamoah urged the leadership of political parties to take a second look at their manifestoes with the object of factoring into them the role of private Universities in their educational policy blueprints.

“We appreciate their policies on building additional Universities to address the problem of imbalance between the demand and supply of University education by our youth.”

He said until the new public Universities were built and resourced to operate, government should come out with a policy of formal partnership with private Universities to increase access to tertiary education for the majority of qualified applicants.

He suggested that the government could begin giving financial relief to tax-paying parents in the form of full or partial scholarships to support the education of their children in private Universities.

He emphasized that the GetFund law should be considered for amendment in the near future to allow students in private Universities to benefit from it.