Otumfuo inaugurates KNUST Council as school reopens on Friday

A new Governing Council for the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), was yesterday constituted and new members sworn into office by the Education Minister.

This was after a meeting of the school’s interim governing council.

Nana Effah Apenteng, a retired diplomat and Omanhene of Bompata traditional Area and Hilda Hagar Ampadu, public health specialist, were members of the interim council set up by the government and they were maintained on the new council.

Also sworn in were Stephen Anoff Amoaning-Yankson, President of the Ghana Institute of Engineers and Alex Quaynor, a private legal practitioner.

Addressing the members of the council, the education minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh said the reconstitution of the council “comes at a very sensitive point and requires clear leadership and direction from you as a matter of urgency to get academic work back on track.”

The University Council is made of 15 members, four of which are government representatives.

A representative from the government side chairs the council.

Meanwhile the freshly inaugurated Governing Council has also announced the reopening of the school on Friday, November 16, 2018

As a result, lectures will resume on Monday, November 19, 2018

This was contained in a statement released a few hours after the six new members of the Council were sworn into office.

KNUST was closed down on Monday, October 22,2018 after riotous students vandalized property and set some ablaze.

An inspection by the Ashanti Regional Security Council (REGSEC) that very day resulted in the Chairman, Simon Mensah, announcing the immediate closure of the school.

Since then, efforts have gone into reopening the premier science and Technology University in the country with some students even complaining the status quo was affecting their studies.

A tussle between government and some stakeholders notably the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) and Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union (TEWU) over representatives delayed the reconstitution of the Council by Chancellor Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.

Otumfuo announced at the inauguration that a meeting would be held immediately as time was minimal for the restoration of academic life at the school.

He expressed a personal desire to have the school reopened today. But the meeting decided on Friday, the decision was taken in consultation with REGSEC.