Some former students of the Kumasi Technical Institute (KTI) say they have not been presented with their certificates since they completed the institute 10 years ago. In an interview with the Daily Graphic, one of the affected students, Kyei Mensah Yamoah, said he had pursued a four-year part-time and a year's full-time course in Welding and Fabrication when he gained admission to the institute in 1996. According to him, he and 100 other members of the 2000-year group suffered a similar fate. He said any time he went to the Industrial Relations Office where the certificates were being collated, he was told to go and come another time, noting that no satisfactory answer had been given him to explain the delay. "I cannot understand why I am denied the certificate which I had studied for. The institute must do something about it," he said. When contacted, the Vice-Principal of KTI, Mr John Ankrah, confirmed the story but did not give further details. For his part, the Principal of the institute, Mr Joseph Abeiku Apprey, attributed the problem to the backlog of certificates to be signed officially to administrative changes and a change in management. He explained that certificates were sometimes given out by the Technical Examination Unit of the Ghana Education Service (GES) at principals' meetings. He said the institute was only an examination centre and did not conduct examinations, pointing out that efforts were being made to correct the anomaly. "It is not deliberate to hold any student's certificate to ransom. The past is gone and we have taken a new initiative," he stressed. He gave the assurance that the Technical Examination Unit in Accra had begun working on the certificates from the 2000-year group up to date. He advised former students who did not have certificates to use their examination results slips for applications as the institute was ready to deal with any referral of certificates when the need arose. The Head of the Technical Examination Unit, Mr Peter Akwasi Atobrah, who spoke to the Daily Graphic on phone, said all efforts were being made to address the anomaly. Source: Daily Graphic