G .I .J STUDENTS DESERVE BETTER

 

Ghana institute of journalism is undoubtedly Ghana’s foremost, renowned and leading communication training institute which produces journalists, PR practitioners and other communication specialists for the media industry in Ghana and beyond.

This exhibition of excellence in the delivery of its core mandate to the people of Ghana has resulted in the production and discovery of stupendous alumni which includes; Kwesi Pratt Jnr(Editor, The Insight Newspaper), Kwaku Sakyi-Addo(Head, Telecoms chamber, Ghana), Ibrahim Awal (Former MD, Graphic communications Group Limited ,and Publisher of the Finder Newspaper )  ,Anas Aremeyaw Anas(Multiple Award- Winning investigative journalist), Gifty Anti ( News Anchor, GTV), Ransford Tetteh(GJA President, and Editor of Daily Graphic),Andrews Awuni(Former Press Secretary to Former President J.A Kuffuor) and a host of others.

Undoubtedly, these alumni have exhibited excellence in their various fields of Endeavour, to the extent that some of us, if not all looked up to them before considering GIJ as a place to further our education. Rather unfortunately, recent events emanating from this  renowned institute ,if care is not taken will dash away the hopes of hundreds of potentially good materials from pursuing courses in this institute obviously because of funding.

I write this article with a heavy heart, but all the same to add my voice to the numerous concerns raised by students, parents, guardians and alumni of our dear institute with regards the high rocketing fees been paid by students, particularly fee-paying students for the 2012/2013 academic year.

Indeed, this issue I am putting across is my candid opinion on genuine concerns raised by students of this institute. I therefore do not expect to attract odium for merely expressing my candid opinion on issues affecting the generality of GIJ students as it’s an extension of our intellectual discourse.

Frankly speaking, the review of the fees for the academic year 2012/2013 raises fundamental concerns of unfairness, which I will subject to scrutiny in the paragraphs that follow.

First, there is no denying the fact that, L 200 and L 400 fee-paying students are paying Gh₵1,700 as against Gh₵ 748 and Gh₵ 400 by the regular L 200 and L 400 students respectively. Equally imperative, is the fact that Diploma 2 fee-paying students are paying GH₵ 1,400 as against GH₵693 by the regular diploma students.

It is also worrying, that in a little under 12 months, fees of L 100 students have shot up astronomically from GH₵ 1,700 -1,800 for fee-paying students and from GH₵ 800-900 for regular students and from GH₵ 1,400-1,500 for diploma fee-paying students as against GH₵ 700-800 for regular diploma 1 students.

Comrades of our great institute, having laid bare some of the legitimate concerns with regards our financial obligation to GIJ , am pretty sure majority of you will agree with me that its time pragmatic measures are put in place to curtail these draconian policies ,which have become an albatross on the neck of GIJ students. Obviously money is hard to come by these days, and I can only imagine what is going through the minds of many of you, particularly fee-paying students. Sadly! The troubles of the last semester are not yet over, but just beginning.

My fellow compatriots, a careful perusal of the fees, equally reveal a dangerous attempt to discriminate against a section of GIJ students. Indeed, I cannot fathom why regular students are enjoying a drastic reduction in their fees whereas fee-paying students are not enjoying the same relief. For example L200 regular students are benefitting from a whopping GH₵ 52.00 reduction where as fee-paying students are not enjoying even a pesewa reduction. Honestly, this is unfair, discriminatory and to a larger extent STRANGE!  This is obviously very strange, if for nothing at all, L100 (now L200) fee-paying students were supplied I.D  cards under the same cost structure last year ,which they are not paying for again and thus, should enjoy some relief . That notwithstanding, I appreciate the fact that certain components of the fees, for example SRC dues may have seen an upwards adjustment, and that may have accounted for the non-reduction .Be that it may, I think it’s time our fees is broken into its components, so that we can subject it to serious scrutiny.

Then again, I must say that having worked closely with the current SRC executives under the able leadership of Raymond Bayor. I am fully aware of the efforts they have made towards giving regular students that unprecedented reduction in their fees and unfortunately sustained the fees of fee-paying student, while commending them for their effort and intervention. I believe they can still do more. If for nothing at all, one legacy they can leave behind is to resist this 75% upfront payment of fees before registration is allowed.

It also saddens my heart, to say that if this draconian policy is allowed to pass. L200 and 400 fee-paying students will have to pay GH₵1,275.00 before registering while their diploma counterparts will pay GH₵ 1,050.00. Equally worrying, is the fact that L100 and Diploma 1 students will be paying GH₵ 1,350.00 and GH₵ 1,125.00 before registering.

Comrades of our beloved institute, education as a right not a privilege should not merely exist in policy documents but must be seen to be observed by state or public institutions to the letter for “our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource “John F. Kennedy. Let’s therefore run away from policies that stifle the efforts of the poor from attaining higher education.

While not holding brief for the management of GIJ, I think the government of the day must also step up its game by increasing its subventions to GIJ. Truly, I don’t think our fees would have been that high if the government meets the budgetary requirements of our beloved institute.        

As rightly indicated by Ayn Rand (1905-1982) “you can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality “. The phenomenal and unparalleled payment of gargantuan fees should be a source of worry to us all as GIJ students- whether you can pay or not. We must therefore all get involved to re-ignite debate on our fees, so that stakeholders can find lasting solutions to this canker-worm, because the difference between ‘involvement’ and ‘commitment’ is like an egg-and-ham breakfast: the chicken was ‘involved’-the pig was ‘committed’. I REST MY CASE.

STEVE KUBATE SALIFU

President, Sutherland Hall.

 

Press Statement

Press Conference of The Mensah Sarbah hall Junior Common Room on The Alleged manhandle of Amina Haruna Addressed by Mr. Edward Tutor President of Mensah Sarbah Hall Junior Common on Wednesday, 17 July, 2012 at The Christian Reading Room at Mensah Sarbah Hall, University of Ghana, Legon

National Executive Officers of the; National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS); University Students Association of Ghana (USAG); Executive Committee Members of the Student Representative Council (SRC); Friends from the Media; Colleague Students here gathered; Ladies and Gentlemen Good Morning.

JCR President Edward Tutor in the middle

In the course of this PRESS CONFERENCE, the Student Leadership of Mensah Sarbah Hall, Students Representative Council (SRC) of University of Ghana, Legon and the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) do not seek to justify in anyway the incident as committed. However, we want to tell Ghanaians of the injustice that has been perpetuated by the University of Ghana Management; some gender advocates, the Media and the Police Service.

The JCR of Mensah Sarbah Hall condemns in strong terms the incident that took place at Mensah Sarbah Hall Annex B on the 30^th of March, 2011 where an alleged thief was manhandled. The JCR however believes that in the pursuance of justice, further injustices should not be perpetrated and that innocent people should NOT be made to pay for the crime perpetrated by others. The Junior Common Room would also like to register the fact that right from the onset we were of the firm conviction that our colleagues were innocent but the management of the University of Ghana failed to have conducted a very thorough investigation with regards to the incident in question.

Some Student Leaders across the country

Friends from the Media, Ladies and Gentlemen, the JCR is highly dissatisfied with the nature of investigations that landed our innocent colleagues in court. We will like to bring to the notice of all Ghanaians that our colleagues partook in an identification parade carried out by the Ghana Police service where the alleged thief was made to identify the culprits. The alleged thief therefore went ahead to pinpoint innocent students who were detained and paraded before court for alleged involvement in the sexual molestation.

National Executive Officers of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Colleague students here gathered, Friends of the Media, Ladies and Gentlemen, we believe that any issues reported in the media should be informative, accurate, balance, verified and clarified. In as much as we appreciate the level of alacrity and attention shown by the media, we are immeasurably disappointed in the fallacious stories propagated by some media houses such as the Daily Guide News Paper, which published on the 10^th of May, 2011 that” There is a manhunt for four Legon students who were actively involved in the indecent act were on the run and that they have even relented from writing their semester exams”.

Friends from the Media, Ladies and Gentlemen, the JCR will like to put on record that no student has been on the run and that, the alleged students mentioned to have absconded wrote their semester exams and their results are even showing boldly on the MIS WEB of the University. Good people of Ghana, this is a grievous crime. If we are committed to building a very noble country with a thriving Media presence our men and women in the business must exhibit good faith and professionalism.

We also want to state that, our respected colleagues since charged have been punctual at the court whiles the prosecution keeps on praying the court to adjourn the case and the prosecution has patronized the venture of adjournment for the past 15 months until our colleagues were discharged on the 10^th of July, 2012.

Friends of the Media, Ladies and Gentlemen, the JCR sees the action of the Management of University of Ghana in the suspension of the alleged students as a wrong decision in respect of the fact that the institution failed to conduct a very fair, judicious, and thorough investigation before arriving at the culprits. The University suspended six of our colleagues for assaulting the alleged thief based on the reason that the alleged students have marred the image of the school. 

Friends of the Media, Colleague Students, Ladies and Gentlemen, the JCR believes that the University did not act in good faith in their quest to protect their image they released the students on an unfair ground.

Thankful enough that the circuit court of this country has vindicated the 13 students on grounds of want of no prosecution last week Tuesday.

National Executive Officers of NUGS, Friends of the Media, Ladies and Gentlemen, we want to appeal to the Management of the University of Ghana to re-instate our suspended colleagues on the ground that, the Prosecutor and the Court of competent jurisdiction of this Republic have failed to produce evidence against our colleagues and the Circuit Court has discharged our innocent colleagues.

National Officers of NUGS; USAG, Colleague Student Leaders, Friends of the Media, Ladies and Gentleman  we will not fail to drum home the innocence of our colleagues and we want the University of Ghana Management to do the noble thing by re-instating our brothers without fail.

Friends of the Media, Ladies and Gentlemen, we thank you for your presence and we hope your good faith and professionalism will be the testament of a very robust relationship between the National Student Leadership and you.

Rawlingses still have a future in NDC – Seth Ofori

A political strategist and former Communications Director of the governing National Democratic Congress, Mr Seth Ofori Ohene, says it is his honest belief that the Rawlingses still have a future in the NDC.

The founder of the NDC, former president Jerry John Rawlings and his wife Nana Konadu are believed to have berthed a new political party, the National Democratic Party, on the political landscape determined to scuttle the second-term bid of President JEA Mills.

Mr Ofori Ohene had, in the wake of a rancorous presidential primary and chaotic aftermath, predicted that if cool heads did not prevail, the NDC would find itself in a very unpleasant situation, going into the 2012 elections.

Refusing to feel vindicated, the one-time Press Secretary to then candidate Mills, told Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Thursday, he was hopeful the cracks could still be mended.

He said it was a spectacularly bad development for the ruling party to go into an election so divided.

According to him, if the power brokers in the party tamed their egos and allowed reason and sobriety to prevail, the situation would have been different.

He believes the NDC is a strong party and can win the December polls if the unity in the party is maintained.

Mr Ofori, who hopes to vie for a parliamentary seat if the Electoral Commission divides the Akropong Constituency into two, said all was not lost yet.

Courtesy:myjoyonline.com