The cry of the public University Student continues as the industrial Strike action of the University Teachers Association of Ghana(UTAG) persists due to issues relating to conditions of service.
Industrial Strike action by UTAG is not a novel matter in question just like it happens with other labor unions in the country. The recent Industrial Strike action by UTAG emanated from previous strike action in August 2021, this particular strike action caused a lot of harm to students of various public universities, it further distracted and change the academic calendar of almost all public Universities in Ghana. After so many agitations and deliberations, various stakeholders of Public universities and the general Ghanaian citizenry were informed that the Ministry of employment and labour Relations as the Representative of the government and the Leadership of UTAG have had a consultative meeting among the stakeholders and a road map for deliberation of conditions of Service for UTAG has been agreed which imposes a one-month mandatory period beginning 23rd August 2021 for negotiations to take place.
UTAG, therefore, decided to suspend its industrial strike action, this brought joy to the ordinary university student.
Fast forward to January 2022, five months after the said agreement was reached and exceeding the one-month mandatory period for all negotiations, all 15 member branches of UTAG unanimously decided a withdrawal from teaching and related activities due to the failure of parties to reach an agreement on the issues.
The failure of the government to address the concerns of UTAG and the failure of UTAG to compromise their stands has put students in a state of obscurity about their academics.
However, strike action by UTAG as well as any other labor group is mostly as a result of data and statistics and failure of the government to meet its part of the bargain. The recent strike action by UTAG is motivated by Labour Market Survey 2019 and the inability of the government to fulfill its part of the bargain as agreed in August 2021.
One will wonder why it is very simple and easy to implement recommendations of committees, bodies and data to review the conditions of service for the executives and other government officials but very difficult to implement recommendations from data and statistics to review the conditions of service for academicians and other Ghanaian citizenries who elected the executive and who the executive is to serve.
Why do we have resources to give better and luxurious conditions of service to our executive and top government officials who have relatively less experience in their respective positions but finds it very difficult to offer better conditions of service to our academicians with a relatively higher level of experience on their job than the executive and the same people who trained and elected the executive.
The effect of the unfair treatment of academicians may result in our finest brains seeking greener pastures elsewhere as their colleagues elsewhere are treated better and in accordance with the job demands than Ghana, this may reduce the quality of our educational system and our human capital as a country.
There are already a number of fine Ghanaian academicians who could have contributed to building the intellectual capacity of Ghanaians and making Ghana’s education system better but have chosen to work elsewhere due to poor conditions of service in Ghana. There are a lot of scholars and former lecturers in Ghana who have changed their profession from lecturing due to poor conditions of service in the lecturing profession.
The educational sector is a very important aspect of our nation-building must be able to maintain the best of quality service available to help build the intellectual capacity of our citizenry.
This problem does not only relate to UTAG, the Technical Universities Teacher Association of Ghana(TUTAG) and other labour unions within the educational sector face similar challenges and are likely to have similar consequences. It is time for us to have a permanent solution to all the recurring challenges within the educational sector.
Notwithstanding these happenings, the ordinary student in Ghana faces the devastating effect of these happenings and UTAG seems unconcern about this while they could look at the ordinary student and soften their stands on the matter even though they have legitimate concerns.
It’s almost 3 weeks since the strike action began and there is a high possibility of universities closing down if UTAG’s decision is not reversed as it has happened in past years in our country’s educational history. This is not an experience we should wish to encounter, students of KNUST who experienced the closedown of the university in 2018 can tell the devastating effect the closure had on them.
Student Leadership noted for activism and fighting for the ordinary students are silent on the matter and the plights of students continue to worsen as the days go by. It is time for students and their leaders to stand up and fight for their legitimate concerns.
So for how long will students continue to suffer due to the inability of one party to fulfill its part of the bargain and expect another party to compromise though it has legitimate concerns?
HUZAIF BADAR IBRAHIM
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
KNUST STUDENT ACTIVIST
+233 (0) 558 229 883