An immediate past spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Hon Vincent Ekow Assafuah following the prolonged UTAG strike action says the industrial action may force public universities across the country to be closed down soon.
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In a statement copied to EducationWeb, the Member of Parliament’s Education Select Committee said ongoing strike action, the National Labour Commission (NLC) has described as illegal is negatively affecting the educational sector.
“The prolonging of the industrial action may culminate in the various public universities closing down for students to return home until the impasse is resolved with the reverting of lecturers back to the lecture rooms,” Vincent stated.
The Old Tafo Member of Parliament said the members of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) are setting a bad precedence and thus their illegal action and behaviour of unpatriotic must be condemned.
On behalf of universities students in the country, the former Education Ministry spokesman urged UTAG to loosen its hardened stance and call off the nationwide industrial action that is likely to trigger the closure of universities.
“UTAG’s claims may have a legitimate basis but they should come to an amicable and appropriate medium of expressing an emphatic demand rather than resorting to a prolonged strike which is not healthy for our educational sector,” he noted.
Expressing hope that concerns of the university teachers in the coming days will be duly resolved for normalcy to prevail, Hon Assafuah urged NLC to be an unbiased referee for the government and the teachers to reach a consensus
“The National Labour Commission (NLC) needs to play a pivotal role in bringing this impasse to a closure laced with mutual respect and understanding,” Member of Parliament Select Committee on Education said on Monday.
In a related development, Parliament’s Education Committee this week is expected to meet the leadership of the striking government university teachers on a possible way to end the ongoing nationwide industrial action.
“We agreed to meet UTAG at our meeting on Wednesday. We plan to hold the meeting next week, listen to them and hopefully bring finality to the matter as we appeal to both sides,” a Committee member told Citi FM last week.
Court after adjourning the case involving the UTAG and the National Labour Commission (NLC) over the ‘not ending soon’ strike action to Tuesday, February 15, 2022, has encouraged both parties to solve the impasse out of court.