The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) has disclosed that, it no longer trusts the government assurances over the handling of the Public Universities Bill (PUB).
Speaking in an interview, the National President of UTAG, Professor Charles Marfo said lecturers no longer trust the assurances of the Education ministry over the controversial bill attributing his reason to the fact that, government has not been transparent with its engagement with all stakeholders in the attempt to the get bill passed.
“We got a copy of the revised PUB at the meeting with the vice president yesterday. It was given to us by the Minister of Education. We were shocked that somebody thinks he can undermine UTAG and go to parliament and pass a law. Funny enough, the parliamentary people were asking that we come out with our position as soon as possible, What I can see so far and the calls I’m getting is that there seems to be a loss of trust.”
He further lamented that, there was a rush on the association by the Parliament select committee to submit their recommendation, which the Association saw as hasty.
“If someone tells you I’ll bring you a document to peruse and you see the person in parliament trying to pass the bill, then there’ll be no trust. The parliament select committee was expecting that we brought our recommendation by Friday but we told them we’re not magicians. We need as much time as we can get. Are we in an emergency to pass the Public Universities Bill? What’s going on? Did anybody die? What’s going on at the universities? If there’s no emergency at the universities, why are we in a rush? Universities are like rainbow colours. Everyone has a colour so if you want to put us into one color, are you not destroying the beauty of the rainbow?”
Parliament on Tuesday approved the Public University Bill at the second reading stage.
The Bill which was withdrawn and re-laid in the House in November is said to seek to harmonise the structures for the administration of public universities.
The Education Committee in presenting its recommendations on the bill to the House noted that the Bill is important for the governance architecture of public universities adding that, the bill further seeks to present an equitable opportunity for all qualified applicants in the country.
However, government on Wednesday,16th December, suspended the consideration of the controversial Public Universities Bill, which went through second reading on Tuesday.
This move follows a meeting with the stakeholders by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and Chairman of the education committee.
Prior to this, various stakeholder’s notable amongst them is the UTAG, GRASAG, Vice-Chancellors and other members of the academia kicked against the bill arguing that, it threatens academic freedom and autonomy of public universities.
Addressing the media in Parliament, Chairman for the committee on education, William Quaittoo disclosed copies of the revised bill has been made available to all agitating stakeholders for their inputs.
According to him, the bill remains suspended until all stakeholders agree with the content.
