Do not bow until govt meets your demands – IFES backs UTAG strike

The Institute for Education Studies (IFES) is backing the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) to proceed with their strike until the government provides what is due them.

Speaking with the Country Director for IFES, Peter Partey-Anti on Burning Issues, he said although students are stranded, lecturers feel they are being disrespected.

He said lecturers will be the losers if the strike is called off without getting what they are demanding.

“I think for me and for us we support the strike of UTAG, we think that they should push on until their needs are met because if they call off the strike, it means they have lost their sight and the government will not take them serious.”

He added that the Minister of Education is ‘incompetent’ and has failed to execute his responsibility, but waited for the issue to escalate before intervening.

“I was shocked yesterday to hear the Minister of Education talk about something else in the education update. He was asked about this issue and he failed to answer this question until he was prompted again. I mean it clearly shows lack of seriousness,” he said.

However, the President of the University Students Association of Ghana, Philip Christian Armah, has disclosed his opinion on the government’s inability to meet the needs of UTAG.

He believes the government is scared to take their issue into consideration as it may trigger other workers from other institutions to come up with their problems.

“The truth is I feel the government is scared to take the terms of UTAG’s conditions into consideration; it may trigger other institutions to call for better conditions of service. And if the government is afraid to commit itself by accepting these needs, then there is a lack of fairness in the system,” he added.

He further added that the works of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission should be improved.

The Commission was created to control these issues and if the government is still facing such complications, then, he thinks they should beef up their responsibility.

“To ensure calmness, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission should sit up because the Commission was created to control consistent strikes and other issues. Now that these issues are still popping up I think the fair wages should be blamed for all these disparities,” he said.