UTAG Strike: UHAS VC on shutting down schools: Prof John Owusu Gyapong, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), argues that shutting down institutions throughout the nation will be the last choice for many school administrators.
Despite the fact that the idea of universities closing down as a result of the UTAG strike has been addressed at many institutions, he claims that it is being postponed as long as possible.
Meanwhile, he claims that colleges may have to pay twice for expenditures as a result of the strike, which would ‘certainly’ hurt their bottom line.
“In terms of losing the inflows per se, one would not anticipate it to happen because if you have a hundred students and everyone was expected to pay a 100cedis, the fact that there are some disturbances doesn’t indicate that students would not pay their fees,” he said on JoyNews’ Pm Express.
“They’ll pay their fees, and you’ll receive your [ten] thousand cedis; but, all of our payments for Municipal services and everything else is being paid right now.” Every other week, I get a charge for cleaning supplies for our hostels and other expenses.”
“The students are living there; they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing, but we have to do all of the cleanings and offer all of the other services.” After the strike is finished, the students return, and we are forced to pay the bill once more.
“As a result, we wind up paying twice as much.” But you can’t ask students to pay twice tuition, therefore there’s certainly a financial loss due to unanticipated expenses,” he explained.
Professor Gyapong claims that one of the main reasons institutions have refused to close is to prevent inconveniencing students who travel long distances to attend classes.
According to him, a school shutdown might result in considerable travel costs and risks.
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“The difficulty has been that there has been a lot of behind-the-scenes dialogue, involving UTAG, engaging the Ministries of Education and Employment and that you virtually always get the idea that it’s almost finished, that we’re at the conclusion.” But, you know, it never happens. As a result, we must use extreme caution.
“I mean, look, I have a student here in Ho who has traveled from Wa, Tamale, Sekondi, and all across the nation.” Then you tell them they have to go home. The costs and hazards involved are considerable.
“I know those who live pretty close would have gone home to go and live with their parents to save on the little money that they’re supposed to use to take care of themselves, but it’s a decision that we make after a lot of consideration,” he said.
“We want to ensure that there is minimum infliction of undue challenges to the students in particular and that is the reason why we’re hastening slowly as far as closing the universities are concerned,” he added.
