UTAG has been protesting throughout the course of recent weeks over what they depict as "the deteriorating states of administration of the college educator and the disappointment of the business in tending to the predicament of its individuals."
In a statement, Africa Edu Watch said the continuous stay of student on various campuses without any academic activity is taking a huge socio-economic toll on the students and their parents.
Below is the full statement:
PRESS RELEASE CLOSE DOWN UNIVERSITIES UNTIL UTAG IMPASSE IS RESOLVED
It has been 22 working days since members of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) embarked on an industrial strike demanding enhanced conditions of service. The strike was declared on the 10th of January 2022. Majority of students on campus are freshmen who have not even been matriculated. These freshmen have had no academic direction since they arrived in the universities to meet a university community without academic activity or supervision by their lecturers and counselors due to the strike.
Their continuous stay on campus without academic activity has economic and social consequences on them and their families back home, as they continue to incur expenditure they otherwise wouldn't have incurred if they were home. On the labour front, five weeks of industrial action is yet to achieve any significant progress in negotiating a settlement to the impasse. In view of the increasing social and economic cost of staying on campus with no academic activity, the absence of academic direction for freshmen on campus, and the apparent lack of an imminent negotiated settlement of the impasse, it will be in the best interest of students; freshmen especially, and their families for the schools to be closed down. We therefore call on Vice Chancellors to dose down all public universities until the UTAG strike is called off.
Accra, 91" February 2022 -End-
blogpay
