Academic work did not commence at Colleges of Education (CoEs) in the country yesterday as scheduled due to the strike by Colleges of Education Teachers Association (CETAG).
Students who reported to their respective campuses over the weekend were on their own with their lecturers unbending in their demand for their better conditions of service.
YAKUBU ABDUL-MAJEED, reports from Tamale that the action had had a toll on students in the Northern Region as there was no lecture in any of the two of Colleges of Education in the Tamale metropolis.
Students were loitering on the campuses when the Ghanaian Times visited the Tamale College of Education (TACE) and the Bagabaga College of Education (BACE).
Some of the students who thronged to the lecture halls were disappointed as there were no lecturers to teach them.
Students who expressed frustration about the strike have made passionate appeals to the government to fast track negotiations with the leadership of CETAG to enable them return to classes for academic work to begin.
Alhasan Nuhuma, a level 300 student of Tamale College of Education, in an interview with the Ghanaian Times said the absence of their lecturers would affect them academically and that there is an urgent need for the government to listen to the lecturers.
“I am sad and worried that there are no lectures here,” he stated.
Efforts to get the views of the striking lecturers was impossible as no lecturer could be seen on any of the two campuses.
FROM WA, LYDIA DARLINGTON FORDJOUR, reports that students of the Nusrat Jahan Ahmadiyya College of Education in the Wa municipality of the Upper West Region had reported to school with no sign of commencing lectures in the face of an indefinite strike.
When the Ghanaian Times visited the school on Monday morning, the students who returned to school on Saturday from the Christmas break were seen wandering about on the campus.
Some of the students were also undergoing administrative procedures such as registration of courses, among others as the administrative staff were at post.
In an interview, the vice principal of the college, Mr Saaed Salih, said the students were expected to begin lectures on Monday, but could not do so because of the strike action.
The principal who had no idea when the strike would be called off, said if left unattended to, the strike could affect teaching and learning activities for the semester.
“For now the impact may not be felt but in the long run when tutors are unable to complete their teaching schedule for the semester, then the impact of the strike would be felt; these trainees are supposed to be in class today for lessons but they are loitering about,” he lamented.
He called on the Ministry of Education and the National Labour Commission (NLC) to attend to the demands of the tutors to enable them return to the classroom and continue with their duties.
Some of the students who spoke to the Ghanaian Times said they were done with their registration but had no idea when lectures would begin and appealed to the government to reach a reasonable consensus with the teachers.
When contacted via phone, the Principal for the McCoy College of Education at Nadowli in the Nadowli-Kaleo District, Reverend Father Peter Paul Yelletuo, also confirmed that first year students who reported to school on Saturday and were supposed to undergo orientation on Monday could not do so.
He hinted that the students were supposed to commence lectures on Wednesday but was unsure of the possibility as the tutors were still on strike.
He added his voice to calls on government and the NLC to attend to the needs of the tutors to ensure that they went back to the classroom to prevent the students from engaging in unprofitable ventures on campus.
The indefinite strike began last Thursday, and was arrived at an emergency meeting by its National Council held on January 4 over the failure of the government to implement the conditions of service agreed upon between 2017 and 2020.
BY TIMES REPORTERS
