Lecturers strike is illegal declares Harry Sawyerr

The Minister for Education, Mr Harry Sawyerr has declared the current strike by lecturers in the country's universities as illegal and thus once again pushed the stakes in the three-month old dispute high. This declaration has met with anger from the 17,900 students whose future plans have been thrown into disarray.

The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), perhaps used to such un-called for statements from the Minister have warned the government that until "satisfactory response is received from the negotiating team, nothing will convince them to go back to the lecture room."

The President of UTAG, Mr D.K Shardow said his members are sympathetic to the problem of the students and wants something to be done to solve this recurrent problem once and for all. "We expect that there should be a feed-back on our proposal and not a declaration that the strike is illegal" he added.

Most Ghanaians are wondering why the very ministry which set the channels of communication namely: the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and principals, the University Councils and the National Council on Tertiary Education, is not using these same channels to find an acceptable solution to the current problems rather than resorting to the use of subtle threats.

If the present problems are not resolved soon, then the country's universities, having lost one academic year in 1982/83 will loose another one this year. Will that mean a 2-year post sixth form national service? And what will be the effects of these of on the educational reform programme. Somebody should act and very fast too for the country cannot afford such an expensive wastage!