The Teachers and Education Workers Union (TEWU) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Monday hit the streets to protest against the dissolution of the governing council of the University and the removal of the Vice Chancellor.
The demonstration is in solidarity with the University lecturers and administrators who have laid down their tools demanding that government reinstates the University’s governing council.
The members insist government has taken the side of students painting lecturers and workers who were directly affected by the demonstrations, as the villains.
Ultimate Fm’s Ivan Heathcote Fumador who was monitoring the protest for Starr News reports that the protesters were brandishing placards with the inscription ’No VC, No Work’.
The chairman of TEWU Charles Arthur insists TEWU will be forced to withdraw its services from campus if their demands are not respected by government.
“It is the council that appointed the Vice Chancellor and the government knew that it cannot sack the Vice Chancellor because it is not the government that appointed him. As a result of that we are now looking for the intention, not the form,” he said.
Meanwhile, the concerned lecturers of the KNUST hold a contrary view. They contend that the demands by unions such as UTAG and TEWU for the old council to be restored are unreasonable.
Indefinite strike
The University’s branch of the University Teachers Association (UTAG) last week declared an indefinite strike, over the dissolution of the governing council.
The industrial action was taken after a crunch meeting by the lecturers on campus Friday, October 26.
The development came a day after government dissolved the governing council of the university after a violent protest by students over what they described as brutalities by authorities.
The lecturers had earlier described government’s decision to dissolve the council as illegal.
“We do not believe that the action taken by Government is the best way to resolve the issue as it frowns on the autonomy of the University and smacks of political interference,” the statement signed by Professor Eric K. Forkuo President of KNUST-UTAG added.
“UTAG-KNUST, therefore, wishes to state emphatically that it does not accept this interim arrangement by government and insist on government allowing the Act and Statutes of the University to work,” the statement stressed warning that should government insist on maintaining the interim council, “UTAG will have no option, other than to advice itself with immediate effect.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
