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KNUST students take over the streets and social media with #FixKNUSTHostelPrices demo

3 years ago
by Ken
4 min read

KNUST students take over the streets and social media with #FixKNUSTHostelPrices demo. We can all ascertain that when nothing is done about an uncomfortable situation, it breeds out unrest and uneasiness and such elements bring about rage and rage can bring about violence. The state of affairs inside the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and technology is currently getting out of hand.

If anyone ever told me 5 years ago that in five years students will be paying over Ghc5000 for a bed space inside a room alongside two to three others for 8-9months, I would have either knocked the person out with a punch or simply give him or her a perfect slap.

Here we are today getting our depressed and worn-out selves presented with unimaginable costs for accommodation we barely enjoy. It’s like the whole world is against us. After almost a year without school, we returned back to balance our normal life with the troubles and financial difficulties burdened over us by a global pandemic whiles also adjusting to a new way of socially distanced living with a nose mask stabbed into our face wherever we go.

We are yet to celebrate a year of coming out of our hiding places to a normal life that never seemed normal. We completed the first semester successfully and came back to tackle a second with the grace of the lord hoping that things get better in the next academic year both financially and physically but it seems our luck is far from finding us. We are rather met with a French class system of capitalism where everyone seems likely to refund all they lost to the pandemic by all means.

First-year students who successfully landed accommodation spots in the traditional halls of the school had to be tapped on the back and reminded of how much time they had to make plans for new accommodations as they prepare the halls for the next batch of fresh arrivals. A culture well sustained and maintained. Luckily for them, the private hostels will be losing some tenants to graduation clearing a large spot for those in search of new hostels as well as the freshers who will be joining these very private hostels.

Everyone is on the hunt but for a reason or two, the hunt is boring because the private hostel providers have drifted further from sustaining the welfare of students to harvesting cash. Unimaginable price tags have been drawn and it really came as a surprise. How on earth the hostel prices shot up with a 40% increment is something no science can ever explain. Despite all efforts of students to get the school authorities as well as the local government authorities to do something about this hike, not a single soul batted an eye to the situation.

And it is said that if one does not see, we make them see. If they seem not to be bothered about the pleads and cries of the students then they will be forced to see and hear. As part of this, the students have taken over the streets and Social media. This is no joke or an individual’s personal agenda but rather a collective agenda of the entire student body of the school. If you can afford but a brother can’t, step out there and speak for a brother till amends are made for all to afford and if we don’t do this, no one will because all we got is ourselves.

Parading of the school in red started on Friday 16th July at exactly 9 am and it goes on and on nonstop till something is done. This is just a first and there’s more to come. The streets shall hear so will social media. Long live Knust. KNUST students take over the streets and social media with #FixKNUSTHostelPrices demo.