Teachers’ Strike Crippling Tertiary Education: Students of St. Francis College of Education To Boycott Exams

• The strike by university lecturers for many weeks now is affecting academic activity at public tertiary institutions
• Students at St Francis College of Education in the Volta Region have resolved to boycott end of semester exams for fear of flunking the test
• The students say lack of adequate contact hours with their lecturers could mean that they would be unable to answer questions set for them
• They have asked the exams to be postponed to next year buy which time the impasse between their lecturers and the government would have been resolved

The strike by university teachers for an increase in their base pay by 60% is crippling academic activity at universities and training colleges across the country.

Teacher unions at public universities like the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) have vacated lecture halls for many weeks.

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Apart from the agitation for an increase in their base pay, the university lecturers also want the government to pay increase some allowances they say have been reduced.

The government has proposed an 18% salary increase as part of negotiations to get them back to the lecture halls, but the lecturers have rejected it as paltry.

The strike is biting hard as many second and third-year tertiary students are denied contact hours with lecturers.

As a result some students are afraid that they may not be able to answer the questions that will set for them when they sit for scheduled end of semester exams.

At the St Francis College of Education in Hohoe in the Volta Region, students told Citi News that although their exams starts on December 5, 2022, they will boycott it.

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According to a Citi News report, some of the students in levels 200 and 300 of the teacher training college want the examination board at the University Of Cape Coast to postpone the exams until next year.

“In fact, other universities, Winneba, UDS, have suspended their examination because of what is happening, and it’s only UCC that is forcing us to write exams, and we think this is not fair, we are not waiting for this exam until our lecturers are back in the classroom to complete our syllabus,” the report quoted an anonymous student.

The university teachers say a decision by the government to review the Vehicle Maintenance and Off-Campus Allowances downward did not make sense because fuel prices have been going up.

PRESEC, Achimota, Adisadel, Others To Suffer As Teachers Declare Strike Over New GES Director-General

Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh reported in a previous story that teachers across the country declared a nationwide indefinite strike over the appointment of a new Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES).

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In early November, students from PRESEC, Achimota, and Adisadel College, among others were affected by the industrial action that started on Friday, November 4, 2022.

The striking teachers were drawn from the NAGRAT, GNAT and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers, Ghana (CCT-GH).

They eventually called off the strike after fruitful negotiations with government.

Source: YEN.com.gh