Vasity Students threaten strike

...over exams concerns

Students of the University of Ghana, Legon are today embarking on a strike action if nothing is done about concerns they raised in a petition to their authorities by the close of yesterday. There is uncertainty surrounding the whole examination, as there is no firm examinations time-table in place.

The weekly time-table being produced is so different from what was initially provided that, students are having difficulty preparing for their papers ahead of time.

The situation is so serious, according to some students the Chronicle spoke to, since the exams started some two weeks ago, they have written just one or two papers, and do not know when they would be writing their next.

The students do not know when they would be vacating, since they do not even know when they would be writing their last papers.

The semester was originally scheduled to end on May 14; however, the authorities decided to shift all papers to be written on Saturdays, to the week beginning May 23.

International students are equally worried because they have booked their flights already for the vacation, based on the calendar ending May 14th.

Meanwhile, a source at the university hinted the Chronicle that arrangements have been made for the international students to write special exams to enable them vacate on the originally scheduled vacation day of 14th May.

The aggrieved students are saying that there are other Ghanaians, who also travel every summer, and are therefore very furious.

?Indeed, we even got reports that some are threatening to sue the university and all that,? one student told the Chronicle.

?Now, we think that probably, a more militant approach might save the situation,? said another. ?Though it is now very clear that Asenso-Okyere and his people have failed, and cannot handle the university, we do not think they should continue like that, because the way things are now, we do not know whether we are vacating on 21st or 22nd. The exams dates have become a mystery,? one student said.

?We do not know what is happening,? said another, adding, ?if we are not careful, there might be a spillover into the next semester.?

All sorts of speculations are going on. Some are wondering why a University, set up in 1948, and that has been conducting exams since then, should be behaving as if this was its first time of organizing one.

In a related development, Joy FM reports of exams leakage at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), leading to the cancellation of a number of examination papers.

Joy News correspondent on the university campus says three papers written by final year students at the College of Art and Social Sciences have been cancelled.

Sources say most of the question papers for final year students at the social science departments were leaked this semester but the authorities were only able to find out at the last sitting.

The cancelled papers, including Sociology and Philosophy, have been rescheduled for next week.

Sources say the leakage was planned with the help of a Teaching Assistant, staff at the Exams office and some foreign students, who buy the questions, solve them on an official exam-answering sheet in their room and then exchange them in the exam hall with the blank sheets.

Some of the students, especially foreign ones, are worried about the scandal as school goes on recession this Saturday and congregation is scheduled between the 7th and 10th of June.