Due to inadequate accommodation at the Medical School, many qualified and brilliant students in the country are being turned away from pursuing their dream courses in the medical sciences as students of the school are now casting ballots to get places to sleep.
In a startling revelation to the Ghanaian Observer Newspaper, Professor Baafuor Opoku, a consultant Obstetrician Gynecologist and lecturer at the School of Medical Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) says students of the school constantly ballot for accommodation at the school.
In an interview during a health walk in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Medical School, the lecturer observed not only is the situation demoralizing but a cause of worry to both lecturers and staff of the School since most of them are near their retirement ages.
CHALLENGES:
In a tearful tone, Prof Baafuor, the anniversary committee chairman decried the attitude of government since the school continues to suffer neglect.
He noted existing lecture halls which accommodated about 38 students in 1981 is still being used by over 200 students at the school.
This situation, the lecturer observed is really hampering the work of the school but had to make do with the inconveniences of the room.
INTAKE:
He revealed the school could take more students if more expansive lecture halls and theatres were constructed to augment existing ones.
Many brilliant students who obtained good grades to have gotten opportunity to pursue medicine, Prof Opoku maintained had been forced to cut short their dreams due to lack of facilities at the school.
ENCOURAGEMENT:
Despite these myriad of challenges facing the school, the Deputy Dean of the School Prof Francis Agyemang Yeboah after participating in the walk and aerobics with students for almost two hours told newsmen the school has produced over 80% of doctors who came from all over the regions of the country to pursue medicine.
Anywhere you go, he posited students from school perform brilliantly as doctors and health workers.
He stressed the school have reasons to be happy with their 40th year existence but called on government to be proactive in resolving both accommodation and lecture hall inadequacies.
He stressed the importance of governments investing the sciences since the development of the country hinged on its human capacities and capabilities.
