Attempted suicide cases can’t be blamed on lack of ‘morale’ on campus – KNUST

The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has debunked the assertion from a section of the students that lack of morale on campus may be the cause of attempted suicide cases in the institution.

Students of KNUST are raising concern over the conditions on campus they say play major role in students sometimes contemplating and sometimes succeeding in committing suicide.

On Tuesday, social media was awash with a video of a medical student hanging from the eighth floor in one of the hostels on campus.

His attempt was however thwarted when a student sounded the alarm and managed to pull him back onto the balcony.

Speaking on Starr Today the KNUST University Relations Officer, Dr. Morris Bekoe indicated that students say they are already burdened with academic duties hence the supposed lack of morale on campus cannot be blamed for the situation.

“If students don’t engage in morale activities so they should go and commit suicide is that what they want to tell us? It’s a national problem and if you look at the statistics now you can see that Ashanti region is leading in terms of suicide related deaths. So KNUST happened to be part of that bigger society.

“How come that we have over 80,000 students and if one student attempt suicide you say it’s because of lack of morale. The number one reason for which students come to school is to study and prepare themselves for the future. Already they are even saying that the workload is too much for them but they want to have time for what, for morale activities?” Dr. Bekoe asked.

He continued: “The media should not be fanning that argument, there are serious issues. The young man in question was complaining about sleeplessness and about other issues which the medical doctors and the other professionals are helping him to overcome. How can a student jump and you say its lack of morale, this young man who cannot even sleep?”