KNUST lecturers cane students, others ordered to kneel in rain – Concerned Katangees
Former students of KNUST have catalogued abuses students suffer which triggered violent protest Monday.
A seven-page press statement by the ‘Concerned Fellows of Katanga 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’.
The students recalled, all males within a block at Katanga Hall were once ordered onto a pitch and directed to kneel in the rain.
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.
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KNUST has become a ghost town after the Ashanti Regional Security Council imposed a curfew and shut down the school indefinitely.
While media reports have linked the disturbances to the decision of the university to convert the male halls into mixed halls, the students have said the Monday protest was about a culture of oppression.
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.
The protest which has gained national attention and government intervention has seen the students venting in the media.
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: asarekasa.blogspot.com
