Campuses have become directionless – GRASAG reacts to UTAG strike

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Graduate Students’ Association of Ghana (GRASAG), Ebenezer Yao Agbenyo, has described the current state of students in the country’s universities as hopeless.

Academic work has stalled for barely a month since students reported to their respective campuses across the country.

The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) says until their demands for improved conditions of service are met, they cannot call off their strike.

Among other things, UTAG wants the government to reconsider the payment of its annual research allowance to a more realistic allowance “as this is critical to our research output, promotion and ultimately national development.”

They also want the 2013 Interim Market Premium (IMP) of 114% of Basic Salary restored.

In the words of the GRASAG PRO “campuses have become directionless as there is nothing going on there because of the strike. Students have become water without containers and are just playing around as they have nothing to do. They are just singing jama songs all the time and this is a sad situation.”

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. The level 100 students are the ones suffering the most and are roaming around aimlessly on campus because they have no idea what to do and it is disheartening.”

In an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, he reiterated their support for UTAG in this industrial strike action. To him, the demands of UTAG are not extraordinary and urged the government to fulfill their pledge for lecturers to return to the classroom for teaching and learning to begin.