KTU students being prepared psychologically for exams after TUTAG strike

Academic activities have resumed at the Koforidua Technical University (KTU) in the Eastern Region, after the Technical University Teachers Association of Ghana (TUTAG) called off its strike.

When Citi News visited the school today, Friday, some lecturers were busily trying to get students in tune for their exams scheduled on Monday.

However, most of the students want authorities to postpone the exams to give them time to prepare psychologically.

“Now, I am on my way to class and I am very happy even though we suffered a lot. Time is far spent and I do not know whether we are going to write exams next week or it will be postponed,” one student said.

Another student also said: “I am happy but I am also praying that their needs are going to be met so the lecturers do not resume their strike. We were supposed to start the exams next Monday, management we understand is in a meeting for the way forward but I just pray they postpone it.”

“We are supposed to have group discussions but because everyone is home, we are unable to learn. Even though we are prepared, the exams should be postponed to give us more time”, another student pleaded.

Meanwhile, Citi News can confirm that the school’s management and TUTAG are making the counselling unit open to students who have been affected by the strike.

Ebenezer Nartey Nartey, Organizing Secretary for the KTU chapter of TUTAG said this is to help students get ready psychologically for the exams.

“We will advocate that a week is at least given the students for them to have a sound mind to write the exams. We want them to have the best of conditions so that when we test them, it doesn’t look like they are under duress.”

The Technical University Teachers Association of Ghana (TUTAG) called off its nationwide strike after the National Labour Commission (NLC) secured an interim injunction on the industrial action.

The association in a statement said its decision to call off the strike was a “demonstration of good faith which must be reciprocated by all stakeholders.”

TUTAG declared an indefinite strike on January 6, 2020, in protest of the non-payment of allowances due its members following the conversion of polytechnics to technical universities.

The Technical Universities Administrators Association of Ghana (TUAAG) also joined the strike demanding full benefits of migration onto the public universities’ salary structure.

Academic work, businesses affected

The deadlock had its fair share on academic activities and businesses on the various campuses. It had dire consequences on technical education as students held protests to have the concerns of their faculties addressed.

The academic calendar of the institutions was adversely affected.

In the new development, issues of examinations, invigilation and marking of scripts have all been distorted.

Students were unhappy; they bemoan the current turn of events as the fate of their academic lives continues to hang in the balance.

But the Ghana National Union of Technical Students (GNUTS) urged its students to be calm as it anticipates a lasting solution to the perennial strikes by their lecturers.