UTAG strike: KNUST faces imminent closure

The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology faces imminent closure following a strike action by the University Teachers Association of Ghana and the Senior Staff Association.

Together with University Teachers in public universities in Ghana, on Monday, August 2, 2021, the Senior Staff Association laid down their tools following a breakdown of negotiations with the government over their conditions of service.

The development has affected academic activities and almost all departments in state-run universities, of which the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology is no exception.

OTEC News' Kwame Agyenim Boateng, who visited the school's campus, reported that students who were supposed to sit for their end-of-semester examinations were left stranded at the various lecture halls with no teachers to supervise the exams.


Academic activities at the university's basic school were left to national service personnel as senior staff members failed to show up.

Speaking to OTEC News' Kwame Agyenim Boateng, the University Relations Officer for KNUST, Dr Norris Bekoe explained that the school would be forced to send all students home should the strike persist.

"A greater number of our staff are members of the two associations on strike now, and so if their negotiations with the government fail, school authorities will have no option than to close down the university."


He appealed to the government and members of UTAG to resolve any impasse to avoid the entire closure of the school as a matter of urgency.

UTAG Communique

The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) began an indefinite strike today, Monday, August 2, 2021.

In a communiqué on July 30, UTAG directed all its members to comply with the strike.

UTAG members on all campuses are to withdraw teaching and other activities like examinations, invigilation, marking of examination scripts and the processing of examination results

The association has been asking the government to restore the conditions of service agreed upon with the government in 2012.

The 2012 conditions of service pegged the Basic plus Market Premium of a lecturer at $2,084.42.

UTAG has complained that the current arrangement has reduced its members' basic premiums to $997.84.