Mampong Technical College not closed down – VP

Mr Charles Amoah Owusu, Vice Principal of Mampong Technical College of Education (MTTC), has refuted media reports that authorities have closed down the College following riots that resulted in the breakage of some louvre blades.

He said the authorities of the College had asked its 1,044 students on Tuesday to go home and report on Monday, November 30 to enable authorities carry out a roll call to ascertain the “genuine students.”

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday, Mr Owusu said the decision followed attempts to get 261 second year students, who had failed in various subjects, to redeem their courses in September 2016.

He said the authorities of the University of Cape Coast introduced a policy prohibiting students to carry referred paper (s) to the next level but the College authorities had been negotiating with the University to allow the students to proceed.

However, he said this year’s negotiation with the university broke down, which meant that the students had to go home and come back to re-sit in September 2016, a deal the students rejected.

Mr Owusu said about 300 of the second year students failed in various subjects, out of which 67 of the students had one referral paper while the rest were unsuccessful in two to 12 subjects.

As part of the deal, he said, the College offered them the opportunity to rewrite their papers but only 130 availed themselves with 12 of them failing again and were subsequently withdrawn.

Mr Owusu said the 261 refused to write citing financial reasons and that they were also not sufficiently prepared.

He said the College then offered them another chance to stay with the first years to receive tuition and prepare themselves adequately to rewrite in September next year on condition that they pay year-two fees of GH?1,700.00 in addition to GH?120.00 as registration fees.

Mr Owusu said only 12 agreed while the rest, according to a security intelligence report, begun plotting to set ablaze the College’s ICT centre, the administration block and cars.

He debunked the claim of the students that they failed only in mathematics and that they had also paid their school fees, saying, “out of the 396 second year students of the College only 13 have paid their fees.”

The College’s fleet of cars have been packed at the Mampong municipal police office, upon security advice, while a student who was arrested on Tuesday has also been granted bail.

The campus was calm as at 0800 hours when the GNA visited the area with neither students nor security personnel on sight as other workers were going about their normal duties.