The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Graduate Students’ Association of Ghana (GRASAG), Ebenezer Yao Agbenyo, has intimated that the activities on the various university campuses have become directionless.
According to the PRO, the current state of students in the country’s universities are hopeless as academic work has stalled for barely a month since students reported to their respective campuses across the country.
“Campuses have become directionless as there is no direction, there is nothing going on there because of the strike. Students have become water without containers. Basically, students are just roaming and playing around as they have nothing to do. They are just singing jama songs all the time and this is a sad situation.”
Ebenezer Yao Agbenyo
Admitting that tertiary students have a high level of discipline and can study on their own, he indicated that personal studies have become impossible as there are no course outlines and references for students to use.
Ebenezer Agbenyo averred that the first year students are the ones suffering the most and are roaming around aimlessly on campus because they have no idea of what to do.
“The first years don’t even know what’s happening in a semester. If they sit down what are they going to learn? What are they going to follow?”
Ebenezer Yao Agbenyo
UTAG Demands, Not Extraordinary
The GRAGSAG PRO stated that the demands of UTAG are not extraordinary and urged government to fulfill its pledge for lecturers to return to the classroom for teaching and learning to begin.
Ebenezer Agbenyo lamented that government lacks commitment and asserted that the silence from government over the period is a worry.
“With this silence from government, we don’t know whether they are going to heed to the calls or not. We are hoping that government will listen and do the right thing so the lecturers [can] go back to the classroom to avoid schools being closed down.
Ebenezer Yao Agbenyo
Touching on a possible shut down of the schools, he averred it’s his prayer it doesn’t reach that stage because there will be a lot of consequences.
“Because people are doing their research work and it will come to a halt. Those who have to graduate will have to shift their graduation to another time. The undergraduates who have internship will also have to shift it.”
Ebenezer Yao Agbenyo
Meanwhile, the National Labour Commission (NLC) has sued the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) for their strike again.
According to the court writ, the NLC prayed the court for an Order for Interlocutory Injunction compelling UTAG whether by itself, its executives, officers, members, agents, servants , employees or other persons to comply with the directive of the National Labor Commission dated 13th of January 2022.
The NLC ruled that the strike by UTAG was illegal but UTAG insisted they weren’t going to return to the classroom. Earlier negotiations between the state and UTAG last week broke down, compelling the NLC to seek intervention from the courts.
But the court action was dropped to allow for the parties to return to the negotiations table but has been taken up again.
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