Put Sunyani Forestry School under KNUST -Antwi

Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) 18 Jan. '99

Mr Lawrence Antwi, principal of the Sunyani Forestry School, has urged the government to attach the school to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) as part of its proposed elevation. An affiliation would enable the school to run tertiary courses for diploma programmes of the recently abolished Institute of Renewable and Natural Resources to train the required middle level manpower needs of the forestry sector. Mr Antwi told told newsmen in Sunyani today that the proposed upgrading of the school has been on the drawing board ''for far too long and it is time something concrete is done for the realisation of this objective''. "The cancellation of the diploma course at the Institute of Renewable and Natural Resources will in the nearest future create a huge vacuum in the human resource needs of the forestry sector.

"The affiliation of the school of Forestry to the University of Science and Technolgy, like the School of Mines based in Tarkwa, will ensure the availability of manpower resources for the forestry sector. "This will be a simpler and cheaper way of upgrading the School because it already has excellent facilities and a long academic relationship with the university,'' Mr Antwi added. He said the country stands to lose greatly in terms of human resources development for the forestry sector if the proposed upgrading is delayed until the coming into being of the Regional Colleges of Applied Sciences and Technology (RECAST) as it is being suggested.