New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for Tema East Titus Glover, says Government's Campus Connect programme which seeks to enlighten tertiary students on Government policies is nothing but a political machine meant to win votes.
The Tema East MP, who was speaking on TV3's New Day, was reacting to fallouts from the Campus Connect session at the Wesley College of Education in Kumasi, where government officials were heckled by the trainees.
Deputy Education Minister and MP for North Tongu, Okudzeto Ablakwa, in the company of Deputy Communications Minister, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Acting Director at the National Service Scheme, Dr. Michael Whyte Kpessah, and other major stakeholders in government, were in the school as part of a nationwide tour christened “Campus Connect”, aimed at addressing students on opportunities available to them after completing their education.
Although the students from various colleges had reported at the Wesley College of Education in Kumasi for the event, they walked out when the Deputy Minister of Education in-charge of tertiary mounted the podium to address them.
They heckled the officials by hooting at them as some allegedly threw sachet water at them. The officials were hooted till they drove out of the campus in their V8 vehicles.
The students' behavior was in reaction to the removal of teacher trainee allowances by Government.
In 2013, government took a decision to scrap allowances for trainees in the colleges of education and this according to the Education Minister, Professor Jane Naana Agyeman was to ensure equity and fairness in the educational system.
The move, she said, was also to attract the best calibre of prospective students with a passion for the teaching profession, as well as equip existing colleges to admit adequate number of students.
She said it was in line with this that the government was upgrading the teacher training institutions into colleges of education to accord them that tertiary status. However, the move by the government did not go well with some trainee teachers who called for the allowance to be reinstated.
Mr. Ablakwa, who has described reports they were chased out of the school as an exaggeration, wondered why the students did not wait to hear him out so they could interact for him to listen to their concerns.
The students' behavior was quite 'unruly', but "...we didn’t want to invite the police and create a scene. We just walked quietly into our various cars and drove quietly away. We were not heckled. I have heard reports that I became like Usain Bolt and was running away with my colleagues....no one took to his heels, no one was pelted with stones...none of that happened".
“It was the best opportunity to interact but the way they conducted themselves, did not help us to achieve our objective. Do we want a regime which allows the allowances to be paid to a few students? Majority of these students would not have been admitted if we had not taken this decision (to scrap the trainee allowance). It is also an issue of judicious use of resources.”
Nonetheless, he said, "I can assure you that 'campus connect is still on.'
But the Tema East MP, Titus Glover, says the initiative is merely to win votes ahead of elections 2016.
Although the MP also condemned the heckling as inappropriate, he told TV3's New Day programme that Mr. Ablakwa, who was once a vibrant student leader and now a Deputy Minister of Education, did not need to visit campuses to know what students problems or needs are.
According to the MP, his conviction that the initiative is merely an attempt to win votes, is further grounded in the fact that, Felix Ofosu Kwakye and Okudjeto Ablakwa, are leading the talks.
"Campus Connect is meant to win votes. I am a politician and I know that when you see Felix Ofosu Kwakye and Ablakwa you should know what this pair are up to. We have SRC and NUGS platforms and the likes available. We are doing politics here. The issue is that the pelting of the sachet water on the Minister was uncalled for. You may disagree with him or be bitter about certain government policy arrangements, but you didn't have to be indiscipline. Maybe they could have even listened to him and drawn their own conclusions. What they did doesn't show respect to Ablakwa who is as young as them and some of them even look up to him. But the presence of the pair on that platform is pregnant with a lot of issues and suspicious" he noted.
