University of Ghana distance students threaten boycott, demo

Aggrieved students of the University of Ghana’s Distance Education programme are calling on the school authorities to be up and doing in their delivery of services to them.

They are considering boycotting lectures and demonstrating to register their reservations.

Speaking to Class91.3FM’s Nii Marmah Boye in an interview on Saturday, 20 October 2018 at the Accra Learning Centre (City Campus), some of the students expressed their frustration about the lack of lecture halls, dearth of learning materials and the school’s dysfunctional online registration system.

They also expressed concerns about the delays in the release of their grades as well as congestion during their Sakai Interim Assessment.

“The treatment is unbearable and we cannot accept it”, the students complained.

“When we come for lectures, we are mostly overcrowded in the class. We do not even have a place to sit. Even lecturers don’t come on time. When we are going to take our Sakai online tests at the labs, there is no space. There are few computers that can’t serve a large number of students. We need more computers to ease the pressure on us.

“We are not getting value for the fees we pay. The school fees are expensive, but conditions for teaching and learning are extremely poor. At times, we travel long distances for lectures and meet the class cancelled”.

“There are instances where we do not even see our lecturers throughout the whole the semester. The teaching assistants who teach us are also not up to the task, and it affects us during the end of semester examinations,” one student complained.