The Universities must re-open

The Minister of Education, Mr Harry Sawyerr last Friday decried the continued strike action by members of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) and stressed that there is no justification for it.

In reaction, the President of UTAG, Mr D. K. Shadow insists that until something concrete comes from government, they would continue to withdraw their services.

The longer the impasse persists, the greater harm it causes to higher education and compounds the burden and anxiety of students as to how to pursue their education.

In the words of Mr Sawyerr, all the issues raised by UTAG have been addressed and that the Council of Vice- Chancellors/Principals as well as the Chairmen of the University Councils agree with him that the strike action has no basis.

On the other hand, Mr Shadow submits that after laying all their cards on the table, the UTAG has not heard anything until they read the statement by Mr Sawyerr that their demands have been met.

If we agree that the education is important for national growth and development especially at the higher level, then there is no need for open-handedness in the resolution of the conflict between UTAG and the government.

This realisation might have underlined the intervention of the cabinet in reversing a plan by Mr Sawyerr to forcibly eject the lecturers from their lawfully occupied bungalows even before the UTAG went to court to restrain him from the intended action.

Since April 10, this year, when UTAG withdrew the services of its members and resorted to the strike action, a lot of negotiations have gone on. The initial misunderstanding as to whether the book allowance should be quoted in dollars or cedis has amicably been resolved.

It was also indicated that the UTAG was to negotiate directly with the Council of Vice-Chancellors and the University Councils. Such negotiations no doubt would need government approval before they could become binding decisions.

As, it is, whilst UTAG is of the opinion that the Ministry of Education is not responding to the proposals agreed upon at meetings with the Vice-Chancellors and University Councils, the Ministry rather things that it has done its best but UTAG has remained unresponsive.

In circumstances like this, there must be open channels of communication between the contending parties since resort to media accusations only serves to deepen the antagonism rather than defuse tension.

The country has already lost much since the universities were closed down and therefore we expect both the ministry of education and UTAG to sit up and resolves their differences in the larger interest of the country.

Whilst it would be unfair for UTAG to continue the strike whilst their demands are addressed, there can be no justification for the minister to call them names if nothing has been communicated to them over the acceptability or otherwise of their proposals.

Since it is the Ministry of Education which delegated the Vice-Chancellors and University Councils to undertake the negotiations and since UTAG has confidence in the negotiation process, the ministry must respond promptly to the proposals and justify which demands cannot be satisfied.

UTAG must also rethink its position and declare a moratorium even as the process of negotiations continues. They would be doing the nation a great honour in that respect.

In the meantime, Parliament needs to take up the issue and see how best a compromise could be arrived at to enable the universities to re-open for academic work as soon as possible without that necessarily stalling the negotiations process - Graphic Editorial.