Peter Anti, Executive Director of the Institute for Education Studies (IFEST) has kicked against calls for the closure of universities after the industrial action embarked on by the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), entered its fifth (5th) week.
Mr. Anti believes although the closure of universities may be the common sense approach, consideration should be given to students who will still want to remain in school to undertake studies on their own or work on their final year projects.
According to him, the closure of universities will mean every single student will have to leave campus for home and that will adversely affect students who will want to be in school and utilize school resources for their studies.
“In the first place I think the closure of schools is the common-sense approach because if teaching and learning is not going on students and the schools will incur costs. The halls will have to pay utility bills for the few students around. Now it has become the convention that universities close down when academic work doesn’t go on for a period of time. But we should know that universities are not like basic schools. When students register for their courses, they have their outlines and know the topics to cover and coincidentally lectures do not make substantial changes to these outlines, giving students the opportunity to study even if the lecturer doesn’t come to the lecture hall or they (students) refuse to attend lectures,” he stated.
In an interview with Don Kwabena Prah on Happy98.9FM’s Epa Hoa Daben political talk show, Peter Enti, advised against the encouragement of the closure of universities. To him, tertiary students “are adults who can do things on their own and prepare for when the strike comes to an end.”
He reiterated that the closure of universities is a wrong call because of the current crop of students and the times we find ourselves in.
The IFEST boss called on stakeholders to mount pressure on the Ministry and UTAG to reach a consensus quickly rather than call for the closure of universities.
Education think tank, Africa Education Watch, has called for the closure of all public universities until the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) calls off its strike.
The think tank says the prolonged stay of students on campuses without any academic activity will drain them financial and their guardians.
According to the think tank, it has become necessary to close down all universities “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.”
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