A section of the demonstrating students
Police in the Bolgatanga Municipality in the Upper East Region yesterday arrested 16 students of the Bolgatanga Technical Institute.
They were arrested in the early hours of Friday and later released following a demonstration.
The students on Friday, around 5:30am, started agitating on campus over challenges they claimed they had been complaining about for months.
According to a DAILY GUIDE source at the school, the students had on many occasions complained about lack of proper toilet facilities, substantive Principal for the institute, student ID cards, inadequate water supply on campus, among other needs.
The Bolgatanga Technical Institute has been without a substantive Principal since the former Principal, Thomas Amare, retired some six months ago.
In the absence of a substantive Principal, the Upper East Regional Education Director, Augustine Ayirezang, has been acting as the head of the school.
DAILY GUIDEÂ has learnt that the acting Principal, Augustine Ayirezang, hardly visits the school since he assumed the position and the students believe that their complaints and plights have not been addressed because of the absence of a substantive school Principal.
The students complained that for over three months, they have not had a good bath, and due to lack of proper toilet facilities, they have been defecating indiscriminately, a situation they feel could affect their health with time. They also complained about their ID cards saying their seniors (3rd years) have not been issued with ID cards even though they had paid for the cards since they came to Form One.
On Friday, November 30, 2018, at about 8:30am, the agitated students who had earlier refused to take their breakfast and ignored calls to get to their classrooms, marched to the office of Augustine Ayirezang, the Regional Director of Education, with their petition.
At the regional office, Mr Augustine Ayirezang assured them that efforts were being made to address their grievances and therefore appealed to them to return to campus to continue with their academic work.
According to the director, a contractor has been engaged to add more boreholes to the few functioning ones on the campus, and he would ensure that the contractor gets to site as soon as possible. He also announced that some persons who applied for the position of Principal of the school would soon be invited for an interview.
Earlier, on their way to the Regional Directorate, one of the students was picked up by the police for unknown reasons but the Regional Education Director promised to address that situation once the students return to school peacefully.
While marching back to campus, the police appeared on the scene again, according to eyewitnesses, and arrested some more students, accusing them of embarking on an unlawful demonstration.
The new arrests infuriated the students and they marched to the Bolgatanga Municipal Police Station to demand the release of their colleagues.
That, unfortunately, led to a misunderstanding between the students and the police, resulting in the students pelting the police with stones. The police retaliated by beating up students they happened to lay their hands on. Sixteen students were arrested in the hullabaloo.
At a point, residents who watched the exchange between the police and the students also got angry and wanted to attack the police, especially when some young police officers took the law into their hands and beat up the students mercilessly with their batons.
The Deputy Regional Police Commander, Mr. Paul Ayittey, had his official vehicle destroyed by the students in the melee.
At the time of filing this report, officials at the Ghana Education Service Directorate were tight-lipped, likewise the police in the Bolgatanga Municipality.
This is the third disturbance the Bolgatanga Technical Institute had recorded since 2015, apart from the one that happened in April, this year, in which the school bus was burnt.
FROM: Ebo Bruce-Quansah, Bolgatanga