Students of Krobea Asante Technical and Vocational Institute in the Ashanti region will be surcharged for damage caused to the property before they return to school.
Six vehicles and other school property, including new building projects, were vandalized by rampaging students protesting poor examination performance.
Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, before the announcement of a five-member investigating committee, said the government cannot take up the cost of the damaged property.
“Whatever they have destroyed they have to pay for them. I believe in fairness”, he said.
Forty students arrested for the rampage are still in police custody as an invitation has been extended to the student leadership.
All students have given their caution statements to the police.
Sekyere East District Director of Education, William Brako Adjepong, says preliminary investigations have established three reasons for the rioting.
“All the reasons we have are speculations. One of them is poor results of their predecessors. The school has also come out with a policy that prepping shouldn’t be done together, boys are separated from the ladies and it has not gone down well with the students. They want to have it together”, he explains.
He further revealed, “Where they do their ironing, they said there aren’t enough sockets but you know these students they are not supposed to go to school with their mobile phones but most of them have phones in school”.
The students started their destruction by cutting the main power source of the school.
The Principal’s bungalow was the prime target, but an attempt for forceful entry was unsuccessful. A government-owned Isuzu pickup truck parked at the premises was destroyed.
They proceeded to the main administrative block to vandalize the school’s Mahindra pickup truck, a Nissan Patrol vehicle and the school’s bus.
The students also turned over a Mercedes Benz salon vehicle owned by a teacher.
They marched to the apartment of the senior housemistress, hurled stones at the building and destroyed a Toyota Vitz car parked in front of the apartment.
They forced open the first gate of the apartment and made away with cooked food.
The school’s food store was ransacked, while installations in newly-constructed buildings were destroyed.
The students marched to the teachers’ quarters and force open the main gate. It took police to stop the students from entering the rooms of the teachers.
The Regional Security Council and the Ministry of Education have resolved to establish a five-member investigative committee.
The Regional Minister says the cause and cost of the vandalism will be established by the committee.
Meanwhile, the regional minister says all the arrests made will be duly investigated and prosecuted.
“Their fate will be determined by the investigation being done by the police. They will screen them and those who will be found culpable will be dealt with by law”, he said.
It remains unclear when the school will be reopened.
