Newly admitted students of the various Colleges of Education in the country have expressed how frustrated they are in terms of academic work.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Awake News’ Tettey Joshua, they lamented on how they move about aimlessly due to the absence of [ads1]lecturers.
“We currently do not know our lefts from our rights. We wake up in the morning, get a dress in our uniforms and that ends it. We cannot stay in our dormitories because it is not allowed. We end up moving to and fro aimlessly till the day ends”, they said.
Concerning academic works, they claimed they were asked to go to the library and read to develop their vocabulary.
“We were asked to go to the library and read to develop our vocabularies. We have been there on several occasions and we are getting tired of reading the old books there” they lamented.
They further lamented that their seniors (level 200) have been blaming them since they resumed.
“Our seniors have been blaming us for the calamity. They always talk as if we brought this upon them and ourselves. It is really embarrassing” they added.
On what they have to say concerning the strike of CETAG, they believe they will suffer more if things continue this way.
“From the look of things we are really going to suffer from this strike. We have been here for three weeks and not even once have they been to class. This is actually affecting us emotionally” they said.
On a clause in the students handbook which states “absenteeism from class for 21 days renders an individual not qualify to write end of semester exams” they said all they hope for is the intervention of God.
“We have been told that if you absent yourself from school for 21 days, you would not be allowed to write the end of semester examination and here we are, we have been outside the classroom for close to 21days yet our faith has not been decided yet”.
They then ceased the opportunity to call on the Government to heed to the call of CETAG so that classroom activities can begin.
“As it stands now, going home will worsen the situation. We are pleading with the Government to heed to the call of CETAG so that they can return to the classroom” they said.
It will be recalled that, College of Education Tutors Association of Ghana (CETAG) has since the 29th of October 2018 gone on strike over their unpaid allowance and other issues of concern. As it stands now, the faith of the various Colleges of Education has not been decided; either the semester will be cancelled or it continues.
Story by: Tettey Joshua Kwasi (Level 300), Jasikan College of Education)