KNUST SONSOL project supports 593 brilliant, needy students

Some 593 brilliant and needy students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) have benefitted from the university's Support One Needy Student with One Laptop (SONSOL).

The project is to help less-privileged students pursue their university education, for Level 100 to 300 students only, reports graphic.com.gh.

However, the support is only open to Ghanaian students, including students from the Institute of Distance Learning (IDL), Obuasi campus, and from all colleges of the university.

According to the report, for new students, one is required to have a maximum aggregate 18 from the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) to be eligible for the project.

For continuing students however, a student needs to attain a minimum Cumulative Weighted Average (CWA) of 55.00 and above to qualify.

However, students already benefitting from any other scholarship or bursary above GH¢2,000.00 are not eligible.

Prof. Rita Akosua Dickson, Vice Chancellor of the KNUST, speaking at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the KNUST last Thursday, said the university had to resort to the virtual space for academic work after the surprise coronavirus pulled up on them in 2020.

This, she added, reminded them that they could no longer go at their own pace as far as the digital transformation race is concerned.

She added that as part of this, the university had started their in-house preparations towards the new order, and to be able to leverage on the new ways of doing things to provide diverse online platforms to enhance teaching, learning and research.

Also, she said, all faculty members of the university have undergone mandatory training in diversified modes of delivery, including psychology of online teaching.

Some corporate organizations including Vodafone Ghana, Stanbic Bank, Absa Bank, SIC Insurance Company and Zoomlion Ghana Limited, sponsored the laptops, reports graphic.com.gh.

The rest are Tobinco Pharmaceutical Limited, Standard Chartered Bank and Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG), and two alumni of the school, Nana Poku Agyemang, the Director of Urban Roads, Kumasi; and Mr. Agyei Baffour, who doubles as a council member of the university, personally donated five laptops each in support of the project.

Prof. Rita Akosua Dickson commended the various institutions and individuals for supporting the SONSOL project while appealing for more support considering the whopping thousands of numbers of students (4,375 students) who had applied for the laptops.