Don’t undermine academic freedom in Tertiary Institutions

The Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) has appealed to the government and its agencies to strictly adhere to internal mechanisms in resolving conflicts and other differences at the work place.

It said it was important to build institutional capacities to handle internal issues other than the government always wanting to exert its influence in resolving those matters.

“Recent happenings in some educational institutions in the country demand that Ghanaians stand up and say no to politicians’ invasion in academic institutions, which is a threat to academic freedom.

Unilateral

“The recent crises at KNUST would not have seen the various worker unions kicking against government’s unilateral decisions aimed at resolving the issues if it had allowed the internal mechanism of the university to be activated at the initial stages to deal with students’ disturbances,” a statement signed by the General Secretary of TEWU, Mr Augustine Saakuur Karbo, said.

It said TEWU was glad that the government in the long run made a U-Turn to allow the internal grievance resolution mechanism to be used to address the KNUST crisis, and that that obviously paved the way for lectures and other academic activities to resume at KNUST.

It is in this regard that the national leadership of TEWU highly commends the hardworking staff of KNUST, especially the Local TEWU and by extension all TEWU members in all tertiary institutions and other agencies such as the GES, Museums , Library and WAEC, as well as, the other unions such as the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG),the Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA), the Federation of University Senior Staff Association of Ghana (FUSSAG), for the solidarity displayed during those trying moments when government’s actions were stampeding the KNUST governance structure”.