By Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo
Students of the Simon Diedong Dombo University for Business and Integrated Development Studies(SDD-UBIDS) have expressed dissatisfaction about certain decisions of the management of the school in respect of their academic calendar.
According to them, management’s decisions lately defy the concept of participatory approach to development which hinges on all stakeholders being considered in decision-making.
The SDD-UBIDS Chapter President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Christian Kwesi Majeed expressed the sentiment on behalf of his colleagues at a News Conference in Wa in the Upper West Region. GBC’s Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo reports that the students are entreating the University authorities to ensure that their decisions and actions take cognisance of the welfare of students.
The NUGS President, Christian Kwesi Majeed related that the academic schedule imposed on students is physically and financially stressful for the students, saying “we have just finished our Third Trimester Field Practical Programme (TTFPP) in October 2021 and returned home exhausted from the multiple challenges we encountered during our stay in rural areas and for the education students who were embarking on their teaching practice”.
“Whilst still lamenting and whining over the multiple anxieties we faced in those communities, the management of our University inconsiderately decided to exacerbate our plight by asking us to return to school on the 8th of November 2021. This directive from the management compelled us to question its logic, because as adults as we are portrayed to be, they should have known better not to call for the students to return to school when they have just returned from the TTFPP,” Mr. Majeed noted.
It seems the management was so eager for us to return not for our academic calendar to recover from the blows we experienced from the COVID-19, but so that they can receive the tuition fees every student is supposed to pay.
He continued that “just when we thought we had seen enough of the demonstration of how the management of our university in top-down method of decision-making and planning, then came another shocking news that our labour unions in the university and its allies elsewhere just declared strike action”.
The NUGS President said though Management had directed that student pay their fees effective 1st December 2021 till 18th February next year, many students are constrained:”
A good number of students are still in their homes because they are unable to mobilise even the cost of transportation to get to Wa, much less to talk of their school fees and the likes, especially, with every hostel owner recently increasing their rent. With all these troubles students are faced with, management had coerced students back to school, only to have us bitterly experience its labour Unions parading in and out of strike actions.”
He stated: “On behalf of the entire students of SDD-UBIDS, we would like to clearly state that if Management fails to make the necessary arrangements for this tender trimester to end successfully, we the student will refuse to succumb to any directive they will give us henceforth.”
“We are also calling on them to reconsider their decision because it is affecting all of us,” Mr. Majeed emphasized.
