Hundreds of students at the Accra Technical University have been sacked from writing their exams following their failure to pay a fine before a deadline last Thursday.
The 100 cedis fine was slapped on the students after they failed to pay the semester’s tuition fee of about GHC1,700 on time.
An enraged Accountancy student David told myjoyonline.com about 400 students were affected by the directive to bar the students from sitting the exams.
He complained, the notice stating the deadline was not sufficiently circulated.
‘I found it last Tuesday behind the door of the finance office,’ he said. In a race against time, David who says he personally funds his education lamented, ‘believe you me, it is hard to come by money these days.’
Much to his dismay, he said the Thursday deadline happened to be the African Union Day, a statutory holiday.
Workers in the university and in the banks were therefore unavailable to facilitate the payment of the fine, leaving the students seething with frustration.
A first-year student, 22-year old Vivian, said she had 48hours to raise money after she first read the notice last Tuesday.
The student of Hotel Catering and Management said she borrowed 522 cedis which is the remainder of her fees and also borrowed the extra 100 cedis for the penalty.
She had hoped the deadline would have been extended by an extra day in view of the impracticality of paying the money on Thursday.
She says she was left devastated after an invigilator told her, she was not part of the list of first-year students who qualified to write the examination.
The students say they have been told, they would have to defer their courses if they are unable to sit this semester’s examination.
Efforts to obtain a response from authorities at the Technical University are yet to yield results.
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