Teaching and learning across all Technical Universities in the country resumed on Monday, November 4, 2019] following the suspension of the strike by the Technical University Teachers Association of Ghana (TUTAG) and the Technical University Senior Administrators Association of Ghana (TUSAAG).
Among other things, the technical university lecturers were demanding a migration of members to the pay grade of public university lecturers.
A check by Citi News in various technical universities across the country show that teaching and learning has fully resumed.
At the Sunyani Technical University, although academic work has resumed earnestly management says students will have a short Christmas break in order to make up for the time lost.
The Public Relations Officer of the school, Dickson Kyere-Duah, told Citi News that “With the three weeks time lost, management is meeting and hopefully in the coming days we will come out with an extended academic calendar, and that will mean students will have to go for the Christmas break, come back and continue with the lost three weeks during which lecturers were on strike. Actually, we don’t want students to lose so the time will be extended per the academic calendar. We expect students to double their efforts as far as academic work is concerned”.
Some students of the University appealed to government to ensure that the issue with TUTAG is solved for good.
“Because of the strike we don’t know how the academic calendar will go but now that the lecturers have returned we are happy. We have just one appeal; we don’t want to see this thing happen again so we are calling on government to fulfill its promises to TUTAG by December so that in January we don’t see any strikes,” a student said.
In the Northern Region, management of the Tamale Technical University says it will meet by close of this week to decide whether or not its academic calendar should be extended.
Even though some students said they’ll welcome the decision to extend the academic calendar, others say the extension will not be the best option.
Academic activities have also resumed at the Takoradi Technical University, TTU, after lecturers called off their three-week-long strike following a meeting with the National Labour Commission and government.
The SRC President of the Takoradi Technical University, Solomon Asegitagwa, also called on government to stick to its promise of finding a lasting solution to the matter in order to keep lecturers in the classroom.
At the Kumasi Technical University, academic activities have also resumed.
Some students who spoke to Citi News were happy about the suspension of the strike by their lecturers but expressed concerns over how to adjust to the academic calendar.
Meanwhile, Chairman for TUTAG at the Kumasi Technical University, Andrews Danquah, assured the public that its members will work hard to make up for the time lost to the strike.
Until last week, members of TUTAG had laid down their tools indefinitely to demand better conditions of service.
TUTAG had been on a three-week-long strike demanding a migration of its members to the pay grade of public university lecturers.
The technical university lecturers had also been asking for an increase in the allowances they are given to the appropriate level arguing that emoluments due them were not released despite a directive from the Ministry of Finance to the Controller and Accountant General’s Department.
TUSAAG which joined TUTAG to lay down their tools has also announced a suspension of their strike, days after the TUTAG did same.
They have concerned about the failure of the government to address their concerns – key among these was their base pay in line with their new status as university staff and not polytechnic staff.