University students to demonstrate tomorrow over UTAG strike

The Coalition of Concerned University Students (CoCUS), made up of student activism groups across university campuses in Ghana, will on Thursday, February 3 embark on a demonstration to register their displeasure at government’s inability to end the protracted strike by the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG).

According to the Coalition, the protest, dubbed “#StudentsAreSufferingDemo!”, will begin at 6am from the University of Ghana, Legon campus through the Liberation road to the Jubilee House and end at the Parliament House.

All protestors are expected to be clad in “Red or black attire”.

A statement issued on Tuesday, 2 February 2022, signed by all conveners of the Coalition, urged all protesters to be law-abiding during the protest and to “avoid behaviours that contravene the laws such as open smoking of "indian hemp, indecent exposure in public, harassing of ladies and citizens, bumping of vehicles etc.”

Meanwhile, UTAG has served notice that as an association, it remains resolute in its decision to strike over its members’ conditions of service until the government does the needful.

“We’re calling on the government to do the needful by bringing some offers on the table for consideration,” the National Secretary of UTAG, Dr Asante Asare Annoh said.

He made this demand in an interview with Kwame Obeng Sarkodie, host of Accra100.5FM’s morning show Ghana Yensom on Monday, January 31, 2022.

According to him, UTAG has been considerate in helping the students, particularly the first-year students, to go through the processes for registration.

He was of the view that the MoU signed with the government on the conditions of service for UTAG members elapsed last year.

He revealed that when the leadership of the union met the sector minister on January 20, he indicated that he was only a minister and that he was going to table the grievances of UTAG before the appropriate bodies in government.

He added that lecturers are impoverished, hence the insistence of the union on the government to make an interim payment of 115 per cent of their current rate.

“It is not a situation of the association asking for salary increase but what has been long overdue,” he said.

He noted: “It is problematic to hear the National Labour Commission going to court over the strike when it is supposed to be making offers for consideration.”

---classfmonline.com