Exempt us from dumsor this exams period - University students plead

The Private University Students Association of Ghana (PUSAG) is appealing to government to exempt educational institutions from the ongoing load shedding during this examination period.

They are also asking government to ensure it fixes the energy crisis by December as promised.

In fact, every sector of the economy is being badly affected by the continuous "dumsorization" of our country. But as students, we are very concerned about the impact of same on the nation's education sector. We believe our education shouldn't be "dumsorized" to cloud our knowledge and jeopardise our educational future.

Below is the full statement from PUSAG.
PRESS STATEMENT FROM THE PRIVATE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION OF GHANA (PUSAG) ON THE WORSENING DUMSOR CRISIS AND ITS IMPACT ON ACADEMIC LIFE

The leadership of the Private University Students' Association of Ghana (PUSAG) wishes to draw the attention of government and the general public about the debilitating effects of the worsening power crisis on students across the country and appeal to the stakeholders especially government, through the Education Ministry to consider our plight and accordingly, come to our aid. This call, has become even more imperative considering the fact that students at the various universities and levels are starting or have started to take their end of semester exams. If for nothing at all, PUSAG believes that government and the ECG can spare the universities of the ongoing load shedding exercise at least for the next three weeks (exams period) to enable students enjoy incident free examination period; thereby improving academic performance.

It would be recalled that last semester, the Education Ministry intervened in this regard and eventually, public universities were exempted from the load shedding during the exams season. We are by this statement, essentially calling for the same intervention and adding that, it should be extended to include private universities since we are all students of Ghana and taxpayers for that matter.

We understand the current energy crisis of the country and the implications it has on productivity, especially on industries which are often compelled to retrench some of their hardworking staff because they are unable to break even. In fact, every sector of the economy is being badly affected by the continuous "dumsorization" of our country. But as students, we are very concerned about the impact of same on the nation's education sector. We believe our education shouldn't be "dumsorized" to cloud our knowledge and jeopardise our educational future.

Even as PUSAG commends the government on the various plans and programmes that are being rolled out in the enterprise of education, we wish to point out to government some critical current flaws in the sector. These flaws and mishaps range from the recent published books and materials at the Junior High School level, to the unrelenting blind eye turned towards the plight of Tertiary students in Ghana. The students of Ghana are indeed very worried and wish to plead with His Excellency the President and his government to immediately take the necessary steps to reverse these worrying trends. It would be repetitive and a mere cliché to remind the government and the general public of the positive results the nation stands to get if Education is taken as a priority and the needed resources, channelled to the sector. The need to focus on education cannot be overemphasised in every jurisdiction.

We wish to conclude by calling on government to make do with the promise to fix the dumsor conundrum once and for all. It is very disappointing that our hopes of seeing an end to dumsor were dashed in 2015 despite the several promises to this effect. Well, we are still hoping and praying that we could count on the President's promise to end the power crisis in 2016 as he pledged.

Thank you.
Long live the Student Struggle
Long live PUSAG
Long live GHANA
Signed...
Francis Kwabena Asante
Media Relations Director, PUSAG.
Richard Odame
President, PUSAG