The demonstration by students of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) has not only disrupted academic work, but also taken the shine off the activities marking the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the university.
Academic activities came to a standstill on Tuesday when the students embarked on a demonstration on the campus over disagreement on some decisions of the Vice-Chancellor (VC), Reverend Professor Anthony Afful-Broni.
As part of activities marking the anniversary celebration, Prof. Emmanuel James Flolu, former Principal of the College of Technology, Kumasi, UEW, was scheduled to deliver a public lecture yesterday at the North Campus at Winneba, but the lecture was called off due to the uneasy calm on campus, the Ghanaian Times has learnt.
The theme for the 25th Anniversary celebration is “Sustaining Quality Education in Ghana through Effective Teacher Education: The role of UEW.” And the topic for the public lecture was “Teacher Education in Ghana: Reflection on the mandate of UEW.”
The university had been in the news over litigation on the dismissal of former Vice Chancellor, Prof. Mawutor Avoke and the appointment of Prof Afful-Broni by the governing council, following which the Supreme Court made a ruling on the matter last year.
But that appeared not to have resolved all the problems facing the university, and matters came to a crush on Tuesday when the students staged a demonstration calling for the head of the VC, Rev. Prof. Afful-Broni, over the allegation of financial malfeasance on the part of the VC and claims of victimisation and maltreatment of some staff of the university.
The Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Prof. Kwesi Yankah, visited the university in the midst of the demonstration and tasked the governing council to take urgent steps to resolve the matter so as academic work could return to normalcy.
The UEW, formerly known as Specialist Training College was, established as a University College in 1992 under PNDC Law 322 charged with the responsibility of producing professional educators and scholars whose knowledge would be fully responsive to the realities and exigencies of contemporary Ghana.
On May 14, 2004, the UEW was enacted to upgrade the status of the University College of Education of Winneba to a full-fledged university.
It has Institute for Distance and E-learning, Institute for Educational Research and Innovation Studies and Institute for Teachers Education and Continuing Professional Development.
Besides, the UEW has three schools: School of Creative Arts, School of Business and School of Graduate Studies.
The UEW has 11 faculties and over 50 academic departments and centres, running on its four campuses in Winneba, Kumasi and Mampong, over 200 under graduate and post graduate academic programmes to deliver on its mandate.
By Salifu Abdul-Rahaman
