Akrokerri College shut down

Akrokerri College of Education in the Ashanti Region was yesterday closed indefinitely by authorities of the institute after riotous protests by students over regulations requiring students who failed examination papers to go home.

Dr. Emmanuel Nyamekye, Principal of the College, said the decision was borne out of the students’ attempt to burn the college’s dining hall and to also cause destruction to other properties.

“After a consultation, the management decided that the college be closed until further notice because it is unclear what will happen next after the students set fire to the dining hall,” he indicated.

He said the protesting students also prevented a section of their colleagues from attending lectures. “It is on account of the uncertainty hanging on the college that management took the decision to ensure safety of lives and property.”

Some 103 students have been dismissed from the college and 217 others were also sent home by the college’s academic board to return in September 2016 to sit for their exams after failing to meet the required credit hours for their academic programmes.

According to the Principal, regulations of the University of Cape Coast, the mentoring institution, require students of the college not to be referred more than once in their papers for which the affected students had fallen foul.

But the students oppose the examination regulation, arguing that they were not made aware of it at the time the college was admitting them.

William Amoateng, the Entertainment Prefect, said a law could not be made to take retrospective effect, insisting that authorities had not been fair to them.

According to him, they had been made to pay huge sums of money to cover registration, feeding, accommodation and other expenses, and therefore could not easily go home.

“Management should be careful on how it relates to students. They should be considerate and understand that some parents have to struggle to pay their ward’s school fees,” said Victoria Dapaah, a first year student.