The Koforidua Polytechnic has enrolled the first batch of 40 students in its Doorstep Education Programme in accountancy and marketing at Nkawkaw and Akim Oda and towns surrounding them. Twenty-one students were enrolled at Nkawkaw while 19 students were enrolled at Akim Oda. The programme is the distance programme of the Polytechnic which aims at extending the facilities of the Polytechnic to communities living far away from the main campus of the institution. The Principal of the Polytechnic, Dr George Afrani in an address at the maiden matriculation ceremony for the students at Nkawkaw at the weekend, said under the programme, the enrolled students would attend lectures at the weekends to acquire the requisite knowledge in marketing and accountancy. He said 120 million cedis has been spent in renting and furnishing premises for the students and lectures in the two towns to bring quality tertiary education to the doorsteps of the people outside the regional capital to reduce conjunctions on the campus. Dr Afrani said though the enrolled students constitute just two per cent of the students’ population of 2,575, he hoped the figure would rise in subsequent years when science based and computer science courses would be introduced. Dr Afrani advised the students to concentrate on their studies to acquire the required knowledge and skills to enhance the country’s human resource base to improve the nation’s economy. The Kwahu West District Chief Executive, Nana Kofi Kese, who chaired the function commended the Koforidua Polytechnic for extending their distant educational programme to the remote areas and urged both professionals and non-professionals in the rural areas to take advantage of the opportunity to upgrade their knowledge to enhance their performance. He expressed the hope that the knowledge and skills that would be imparted to the students would help develop their institutions and organizations. The DCE said the assembly is supplementing government’s efforts to develop the human resource capacity among the youth with the construction of an ICT centre at Nkawkaw. GNA