Is it reasonable that the amount of money we pay to secure a room (hostel) for about 7 months be far more than the amount we pay for our tuition?
Am I (as a student) going to be able to cope when these seemingly indifferent hostel managers increase their hostel prices again (which they always do at an alarming rate)?
Would I even retain my room (because some of these porters just want bribes else you would be axed)?
I keep on asking myself these questions every time an academic calendar is about to end. The hustle and frantic efforts to seek a new hostel or to retain a hostel for the next academic year is all too obvious among the student population during the middle of the second semester.
One hostel located at Ayeduase, the name which I would not like to disclose, pay rent as high as GH¢2,300.00 for each person living in two-in-a-room thus making the total amount being paid for a single room by two students to be GH¢4,600.00. Per my judgment this is outrageous. (Are we going to carry the rooms to our homes after the four years has ended?).
The most irritating part of all these is the fact that these hostels do not get the yearly maintenance necessary to keep them in good condition for the safety of the lives of students. A typical example located at Ayeduase again has one block of the hostel threatening to sink into the ground due to constant washing away of the soil around its base when it rains because it is in a waterway. One would think the hostel manager would put in measures to ensure the safety of the building as well as the students but as per Ghanaian nature, he looks on unperturbed.
Without any renovation works, maintenance and other relevant things that need to be done in order to maintain their hostels, these hostel managers have the impunity to just raise their prices as high as they want and expect our parents who toil day-in day-out to just hand us the money to pay.
But come to think of it, are these hostel managers to blame for the hike in hostel prices? After all, these are just businessmen who want to make the most out of their investments. I mean who can really blame a businessman for that? The person to take the blame is the Administration of this noble institution (KNUST). These accommodation problems in KNUST have been gnawing at our flesh since time immemorial.
Is the student population increasing? Obviously YES!!! But how many traditional halls have been built over the past decade or two? NONE. Vast lands are scattered all over campus yet I do not see any construction of new halls to accommodate the ever increasing population of students trooping in yearly.
Most people would argue that the school lacks funds to put up such halls or that there are not enough companies or organizations ready to enter into partnership with the school but how did University of Ghana, Legon, pull it through when they were confronted with the same problem years ago? Would this school be where it is now without the students? If no then I definitely have to ask the question that keeps ringing in my head; “What are the priorities of KNUST”?
Just recently a shopping mall named “Jubilee Mall” was built at the commercial area and I cannot seem to pinpoint the exact relevance of this mall. Almost all of the services provided by this mall are being provided to students conveniently elsewhere.
One can clearly see that this mall is being taken as a joke by some students. I would think the HFC bank (who funded this mall) would invest into building hostels or possibly enter into partnership with the school (if the school is willing to) in order to build more halls but what do you see? A mall that students hardly patronize. It is very pathetic.
I could go on and on about all these issues but I would not end because it could take eternity. All I want to make clear is that, in these recent economic hardships facing the entire populace and the gnashing of teeth, where are our parents going to get the money to pay our hostel fees as well as our tuition fees come next academic year and the next and the next…? Why would I want to make this clear? All because someone somewhere is not doing his or her job well. I rest my case.
