The Ministry of Education says it is working around the clock to ensure that the Asante Mampong Technical College of Education opens for academic work by Monday.
The institution closed down yesterday after students rioted over the decision of the school to dismiss 261 students for poor results in Mathematics and other general courses.
[contextly_sidebar id=”AoJMt8TdeH2oUH4LVO5e2wz2Aj19S5Q1″]The students were demonstrating against a new directive compelling all students to write elective mathematics as a compulsory subject with no alternative courses. Previously a technical discipline or any other general course was an alternative.
According to the Ministry, the planned dismissal was effected by the school because of a new directive from the regulatory body of Colleges of Education to raise academic standards in the institutions responsible for training teachers.
Speaking to CitiNews, the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry, Francis Gbadago noted that the school was “now implementing a progression system where if a student fails subjects worth 11 credit hours or more, that one you would be asked to leave or you would be withdrawn. But if you fail subjects worth less than 11 credit hours you would be asked to re-sit.”
Mr.Gbadago said the 261 students at the core of the riots did not re-sit the paper when the opportunity came, leading to the outrage.
“Now these 261 students in question haven’t registered at all. They did not register during the resist process and so automatically what it meant is that they were supposed to be withdrawn and they were asked to go home, come back next year to come and do the re-sit.”
Mr. Gbadago called the riots unfortunate and noted that decision to close down the school temporarily was on the advice of the district police commander.
He said the students “are supposed to come back to college by Monday and then the 261 students, they will be coming back next year to do the re-sit.”
–
By Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana