NEC of UTAG holds emergency meeting in Kumasi today
The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) will hold an emergency meeting in Kumasi today on the strike by some of its members at the University of Education, Winneba.
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After a three-hour crunch meeting at the Winneba campus of the university yesterday, the President of the Winneba branch of UTAG, Dr Samuel Bekoe, told the Daily Graphic that the meeting resolved that the NEC of UTAG should decide on the way forward, reports Shirley Asiedu-Addo.
He, however, said the indefinite strike was still on until otherwise decided by the NEC of UTAG.
Meanwhile the Minister of Education in charge of Tertiary Education, Professor Kwesi Yankah, has advised the lecturers to use legal procedures to seek redress instead of embarking on the strike to challenge the court ruling.
“Strike actions are not the expected responses to verdicts that we disagree with. We wish to tell them to rescind that decision.
“If they have any misgivings, I am sure they have their lawyers that can take same matter to court or even appeal and I think that is the most important thing, regardless of the content,” he told the Daily Graphic in an interview yesterday.
Winneba
However, Dr Bekoe said the university’s branch of UTAG had been in discussion with its national office all along and ‘‘we want the NEC to take over from here. The situation is bigger than UEW UTAG. It affects all the universities directly or indirectly’’.
He said the branch would abide by any decision taken by the NEC.
Solidarity
Some members of UTAG who spoke to the Daily Graphic said they supported the branch executives’ action.
They indicated that the case had serious implications not only for the university but on many other tertiary institutions, saying they must fight now or never.
Sandwich
The Daily Graphic, however, gathered that some of the lecturers were currenly teaching sandwich courses.
Dr Bekoe explained that the sandwich programme was virtually a private initiative.
Kwadwo Baffoe Donkor reports that the local branch of UTAG of the College of Technology Education, Kumasi of the University of Education, Winneba was yet to decide on the strike.
The Local Chairman of the branch, Mr George Takyi Obeng, told the Daily Graphic that they were yet to meet as a group to decide on the strike.
He said the announcement came last Friday at the time most of them could not meet to take a decision on the matter.
When the Daily Graphic visited the Kumasi campus, the place was virtually deserted as the mainstream school was currently on vacation.
There were sandwich students who had reported and were and going through registration processes.
Mr Obeng said for the members of Kumasi, “we are not on strike and until we meet as a body to take a decision, we are continuing with our normal schedules”.
Reaction shocking
Prof. Yankah, however, said the immediate reaction of UTAG was “rather shocking to the ministry because I hardly hear of a case where a court has ruled and those adversely affected by the court ruling immediately resort to a strike’’, reports Severious Kale-Dery.
“It is certainly unusual, but I normally hear of cases where people express disappointment, they express shock and they totally disagree with the verdict,” he said.
He said that was what he was expecting from the UTAG at the UEW and not a strike, adding that that was particularly so when the issue was emanating from the academia, which were seen as opinion leaders.
“We are probably the conscience of the country. We may be unhappy with certain decisions taken about us but what makes the difference is what we do in response to decisions that displease us,” he said.
Rule of law
Prof. Yankah said with the current democratic dispensation of the rule of law, it was expected that they would use the various opportunities available, including using the court for a redress instead of the strike.
He said as far as he knew, “Whatever we heard from the court is subject to the substantive hearing of the case in September,” adding that the order that the two substantive officers step aside did not mean that they had been sacked.