UTAG crisis: Hope it ends

Today is exactly 30 days since lecturers of public universities deserted the lecture theatres in a nationwide strike to back their demand for improved working conditions for university teachers.

Since then, there has been a number of meetings which, at all material times, ended inconclusively.

The latest meeting was held last Tuesday, and once again, it ended inconclusively. Fortunately, it was rescheduled for today for continuous engagement among the parties – the ministries of Education and Employment and Labour Relations and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), on the one hand, and UTAG, on the other, with the National Labour Commission (NLC) as the mediator.

As the parties reconvene today to find ways of resolving the month-long strike, we can only wish for a good outcome and urge them to let cool heads prevail for the sake of stranded students on the various campuses.

This is because while the impasse goes on, it is the students and their parents who are bearing the brunt.

Currently, students are left in a fix as to whether to remain on campus, with virtually no academic work going on, or pack bag and baggage back home.

The worrying thing about this strike is the fact that it defies the conventional understanding that after 21 days of continuous absence of academic activities, the universities must shut down.

Our prayer is that today’s meeting will be the last one to enable lecturers to enter the lecture theatres to deliver what they do best in order to sustain our educational standards, which has become an envy on the continent.

The fact is that education remains the bedrock for the development of every nation, and that is why the Daily Graphic supports efforts by the government to improve access to education and ensure quality for the sector.

Recently, Ghana joined the rest of the world to mark the International Day of Education on the theme: “Changing course, Transforming education”.

The day, which falls every January 24, is set aside to help raise awareness of the importance of education, how to make it more accessible to everyone and why people need to complete their education.

This year’s theme, which focused on the need to nurture transformation to allow access to education for all and help build a sustainable future, was very apt.

Even before the setting aside of January 24 as the International Day of Education, Ghana had been at the forefront of opening up access to enable as many children as possible to attain up to secondary education under the free SHS programme.

The education flagship programme, which commenced in 2017, has so far enabled over 400,000 students, who would have lost out on secondary education, to have access.

At the basic level, the introduction of the school feeding programme, the capitation grant and the free compulsory universal basic education (FCUBE) for all public basic schools has increased enrolment at that level.

We acknowledge that our educational policies, especially the free SHS, are in line with international standards and we hope this will be sustained.

We are equally happy that over the last few years, budgetary allocation to education has increased consistently. Overall, this year’s education allocation is the highest we have ever seen, having increased from GH¢15,631,637,855 in 2021 to GH¢17,786,819,000.

In spite of the increase in the budget for education, we wish to urge the government to continue to invest more in education because the level of development of a country depends on the level of education of its citizens.

The issue of quality, which is part of the free SHS programme, has been challenged at various quarters and we believe that it is important that the government takes a second look at that aspect to make the overall delivery on education complete.

We are in a global village and cannot, as a country, afford to be left behind in this era of technology.

That is why we expect today’s meeting on the UTAG strike to do everything possible to resolve any lingering matters. The month-long strike is having a toll on the country’s education, and for us at the Daily Graphic, we can only hope that the meeting will end well and bring normalcy to the educational sector.