Campus Connect: An initiative for interaction
After a successful launch of the Campus Connect initiative at the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Tamale in the Northern Region on March 25, 2015, the initiative has caught up with students as a perfect forum to get their grievances across for redress.
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Though it suffered a jolt with the boycott of the trainees of the Colleges of Education in the Ashanti Region after two successful ones in the UDS and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology( KNUST), the overwhelming success at the Accra Polytechnic was a clear indication that it was not a bad initiative, though it might still need some fine-tuning.
What is Campus Connect?
The Campus Connect initiative, which is being championed by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with student leaders and management of tertiary institutions, is aimed at strengthening relations between government and the student body.
The initiative seeks to receive feedback from students on the impact of government policies and programmes while stimulating intellectual discussions on governance in our higher institutions of learning.
Interactions
All seemed well and gave the indication that the initiative had taken root, judging from the level of enthusiasm of the students in the two institutions, especially during the interaction time when they had the opportunity to seek answers from the government officials, who were also fully represented, with no less an officer than the Deputy Chief of Staff leading the team. The concerns of the students ranged from school fees, school and communication infrastructure on campus, provision of utility facilities, security and health concerns
, as well as accreditation, to concerns over the management of the universities. Other concerns focused on improving the power supply on campuses. At both venues, the students called on the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to put in place an arrangement to help students study sufficiently to be able to write their end-of-semester examination, in view of the current power rationing exercise.
Intervention
Then came April 15, when it was the turn of all the Colleges of Education in the Ashanti Region to experience Campus Connect at the Wesley College of Education. To all intents and purposes, that was a golden opportunity for the students to champion the concerns of all their mates, especially on the thorny issue of the cancellation of the students’ allowance. Unfortunately, the opportunity was ‘squandered’ as the students, who had comported themselves from the beginning up to a point when the Deputy Minister in charge of Tertiary Education, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwah, mounted the podium to explain the rationale of the initiative, brought the programme to an abrupt end.
The students did not only boycott the programme, they also disrupted it, resulting in the use of sachets of water to pelt the female students who defied the boycott to attend the programme, as well as the government officials. The Daily Graphic on Thursday April 16, 2015 reported among others that, “As the dignitaries walked to their cars, the students jeered and booed at them with Mr Ablakwah, being at the receiving end.” The fact remains that however genuine the concerns of the students were, they acted in bad faith and need to be condemned in no uncertain terms. The reaction of the students was not only in bad taste, but the highest level of indiscipline.
Missed opportunity
What a missed opportunity! For me, it was a missed opportunity because the Daily Graphic reporter at the function further reported that, “The students claimed they had written petitions and sent letters to the ministry about their grievances and the ministry has not found it expedient to react to any of their concerns but found time to come and address them.”
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According to reports, the students insisted that until the sector minister responded to their petitions, they were not prepared to listen to them. The question is, how were the students to receive the response of the ministry if they were not prepared to listen?
That was an occasion that the students would have made public their concerns, at least for the last time, and would have heard what plans the ministry had for them. Who knows whether their concerns were part of the reasons why the government entourage had visited them?
Suggestions
Now back to Campus Connect, I am sure that, there are some lapses that need to be addressed to make the initiative what it intends to be. For instance, government officials attending the programmes should be given limited time to speak because long speeches are not what are expected at such a forum.
It is important to note that the students already have their questions before entering the hall and so, there is no need for such speeches. The officials should rather give as many students as possible the opportunity to ask questions or make comments, which should also be regulated. Remember, the students already had various social media platform on which they could table their concerns and questions. It was obvious a number of the students were disappointed that they could not get a chance to ask their questions.
Social media platforms
Alternatively, to encourage the students to patronise the social media platform, the Ministry Education could designate one of its officers to compile the concerns and questions raised there with the names of the writers and read them out before the commencement of the questions and answers time. This will also reduce the number of students rushing to ask questions during the programme.
Politicisation
One important thing the ministry should guard against if the initiative is to be sustained is steer clear of politicising it. It was gratifying to hear the originator of the initiative, Mr Ablakwa, assuring the students that Campus Connect was a non-partisan programme aimed at bringing governance to the doorstep of students.
This is critical and should be seen as such and those who will want to put a political twist to their questions should be stopped .
Writer’s Email: severious.dery@graphic.com.gh