President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) has said at a press conference in Accra today that tertiary students in the country are not in the right frame of minds to take online exams.
According to him this results comes from a survey conducted amongst some 2,725 Students across the country.
Giving the details of this survey, he said it was composed of 2.9% of respondents post-graduate students, 39% university students, 30.6% colleges of education students and the remaining 27.7% SHS students.
“For us students, our biggest concern and uncertainty has been to whether or not it’s appropriate to get schools operational again…about 80% of the students, majority of them tertiary students are not in the right frame of mind to take the exams. The fear of the unknown such as power cuts,, exhaustion of the bundles during online activities has generated some of these concerns but majority of them are still willing to take the exams online since they see it the only option occasioned by the pandemic” he said calling on the universities to put in the necessary measures that will ensure a conducive atmosphere for all students.
Speaking on the matter of reopening schools, Isaac Jay Hyde said the position of the union was for a “gradualist approach” in the reopening of schools as the confusion has first of all been occasioned by the experts who opine that the virus has come to stay although it spreads through body contact.
On the matter of the controversial Public Universities Bill, the union said it was one that was giving undue power to the president in the running of the universities and their independence. According to him, much powers that were in the hands of the universities council has been stripped off them. They thus called on the government to make sure the necessary changes are made to the draft bill in parliament to deal with this situation.
“..this is not to disregard some good aspects of the bill. Some of the provisions under strong contention includes the victimization of graduate students…the conspicuous missing of the student rep on the academic board under section 19, the nomination of the chairperson of the university board under section 5, the appointment of the vice-chancellor of the university under section 14, the nomination of some 5 others which constitute a majority of government representation on the council under section 5 of the draft, the revocation of the appointment of council members and the formation of quorum for council meetings under section 8 of the bill and the regulation of final expenditure of universities under section 26”
Explaining these further, he made mention of what he called council politics where students interest is not much strengthened as the number of student votes on the council is low. They thus called on the amendment of some parts of the bill to include the GRASAG presidents to help strengthen their voices on the council as well as provide a strong research background for the councils.
He also called for a representation of students at the academic board level be reviewed to make a party to the board an SRC representative since their work also affects students.
