Close Down Universities Until UTAG Calls Off Strike …Eduwatch

Education think-tank Eduwatch has called on the government to close down all public universities which remain open even though University teachers, under the umbrella of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) are on strike.

In a statement, Eduwatch said it will be more prudent to close the schools and reopen after UTAG has called off its strike because the continued stay on campus is making students and their caregivers incur wasteful expenditures.

“They continue to incur expenditure they otherwise wouldn’t have incurred if they were home. We, therefore, call on Vice-Chancellors to close down all public universities until the UTAG strike is called off,” Eduwatch said in a statement on Wednesday.

Eduwatch adds that the “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.”

It continued, “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.”

UTAG has been on strike in a quest for better conditions of service for its members, with the government’s offers failing to convince the lecturers to return to the classroom.

On Tuesday, a meeting convened by the Education Ministry with UTAG and other relevant stakeholders ended in a stalemate.

The parties are expected to continue the negotiations on Thursday, February 10.