It is passed 7:30 am, and the typical rush hour for students and academic engagement has been encapsulated in a stakeholder: government-UTAG negotiation. The atmosphere of University Of Ghana, Legon Campus has gone silent as the Kumasi Tafo Cemetery. This is unusual, and the expectations of both residents and Non-Residents have met a lot of uncertainties. The development has limited lectures to the bed rooms of students. The busiest Diaspora-Night Market stretch, Pent-Evandy-TF stretch, and the descending stretch of the Vandal City, have been abandoned like a devastated war zone. An empty street and a hole inside the pinnacle of education. Students are already returning to the very reason conversations like this seems not to work, and it's becoming a challenge to the progress and development we want to see in our educational system.
My visits this morning to some of the lecture Halls like Jones Quartey Building (JQB), Central Cafeteria (CC), Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB MAIN), and NNB, etc, reflected the expectation of my doubts. Lecture halls are ready to accommodate students, but they are all empty and have become like the ghost Syrian towns of Idlib and Ariha, The great Aleppo Mosque, and the Rwandan City of Kigali during the 1994 genocide
Lecturers nationwide are on STRIKE!!! Academic activities have been halted. Students are stranded and have been left in a state of confusion. We witnessed the emergence of COVID 19 and how it consequences forced the University management to close down the school in March 2020. We are twelve (12) days into the stipulated 21 days after the strike was initiated. If situations remain the same, there would be a closed down of Universities again and students will be directed to go home if the stakeholder engagement comes out empty.
On Wednesday, October 6 2021, after reaching a consensus with the government (President of UTAG, Prof. Solomon Nunoo, said an agreement was reached "after more than five hours of negotiations". He further urged the government to fulfil their end of the bargain to ensure labour harmony. The question is, what promise did the government assure UTAG that led them to rescind their decision?
For UTAG to embark on another strike three months later, is an indication of failure on the part of the government to deliver what was promised. The bargain has proved unfruitful. To have students suffer and bear the consequences at the heart of this development shouldn't be the compromise, and students plead with lecturers to come back to lecture halls, as government do the needful.
UTAG is demanding a restoration of a Single Spine Salary Structure that would see entry-level lecturers earn the cedi equivalent of 2,084 dollars monthly. These structure was agreed in 2012 and ten years on the lecturers had to fight for it. This is unacceptable. The lecturers deserves better.
This is the time student bodies like NUGS, USAG, etc have to stand upright and put the government on its toes, and stop being ceremonial associations gracing occasions here and there
It is my hope and prayer that the strike does not hit the 21 days mark that will necessitate students to go back home. We are in the middle of the strike, and I must say that it is still early days, and the biggest stakeholder being the government must see to it that lecturers are given what is due them, for students to have their peace of mind to study.
Students can't be the sacrificial lamb
!!
SAMUEL KWAME OWUSU (SKO) UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON SOCIOLOGY DEPARTMENT
LEVEL 400
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