Teacher trainees boycott mid-semester quizzes over CETAG, CENTSAG strike

Correspondence from Bono Region

Teacher trainees in all sixteen Colleges of Education affiliated with the University of Cape Coast have boycotted all mid-semester quizzes.

The teacher trainees refused to write the first mid-semester paper; Gender and Writing paper scheduled for Thursday, December 1, 2022.

Trainees at the OLA College of Education, Berekun College of Education, Abetifi College of Education, St. Francis College of Education, St. Monicas’s College of Education, Seventh Day Adventist College of Education, Christ the Teacher College of Education, Atebubu College of Education and Foso College all boycotted the mid-semester examination.

Similarly, trainees at the Holy Child College of Education, Kibi College of Education, Holy Spirit College of Education, Jasikan College of Education, St. Ambrose College of Education, St. Teresa's College of Education and Offinso College of Education all followed suit.

At the Atebubu College of Education, for instance, the trainees availed themselves for the examination but refused to write the paper and stormed out of the hall with the examination papers when the question papers were distributed to them.

The boycott follows a three weeks old strike by two bodies, the Colleges of Education Tutors Association of Ghana and the Colleges of Education Non-Teaching Staff Association of Ghana (CENTSAG) over welfare concerns.

According to the students, they have lost five weeks of contact hours as a result of the ongoing strike by CETAG and will need a postponement of all examinations until issues surrounding the strike are resolved.

They contend that the tutors have not been able to cover most of the topics nor have they been able to award scores for continuous assessment.

A second year of the Atebubu College of Education, Peter Katari, supported the boycott because their earlier pleas to the mentoring university for a postponement like other sister mentoring universities were ignored.

“The boycott is in the right direction because we can’t write exams when tutors have been on strike for three weeks now. We have a lot to cover in terms of content but the university wanted to go ahead with the examination and we responded by boycotting it”.

Confirming the boycott to GhanaWeb, the General Secretary of the Teacher Trainees Association of Ghana (TTAG), Musah Sumaila, disclosed that they have resolved not to take part in the mid-semester quizzes as well as the scheduled end-of-semester examination.

He added that they want the University of Cape Coast to postpone the mid-semester quizzes and end-of-semester examination until the impasse between CETAG and the government is resolved.

“We have decided to boycott the mid-semester quizzes as well as the scheduled end-of-semester examination because of impending issues. We cannot write examination under the current conditions and it is only fair that they postpone it until the strike is called off”.

Meanwhile, this portal can confirm that all SRC Presidents in the 46 Colleges of Education across the country had earlier written to the National Executive of TTAG directing all students and teachers to stay off the examination.