Poly students give government ultimatum to resolve impasse

Accra, Oct. 19, GNA - The Ghana National Union of Polytechnic Students (GNUPS), on Tuesday issued an ultimatum to the government to resolve all problems it has with the Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG).

It said if the ultimatum elapse members would embark on daily demonstrations to press home the demands of their lecturers.

"We are giving the government by the end of this week to address all issues it has with our lecturers or risk seeing us always on the streets till our voice is heard," said Ebenezer Boakye Agyemang, National President, GNUPS.

In a petition addressed to the President, the Union expressed concern about the 93lackadaisical attitude" of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission towards POTAG which had led to numerous strike actions.

The Union bemoaned the relegation of Polytechnic education to the background leading to intermittent strike actions by the lecturers.

"Not only do we find it unfortunate, unfair and unjust but also an inhumane treatment we clearly refer to as educational racism," the statement read.

The students therefore urged the government to show 93true commitment to Polytechnic education" by treating POTAG the same way as it treated the University Teachers Association of Ghana.

"If your (President John Evans Atta Mills) intervention by meeting the Vice Chancellors is, in your own judgment, a step to resolve the challenges, we believe you could do the same to the POTAG to demonstrate your political mantra of father for all," it read.

The statement reminded the President of his promise to pay more attention to science and technical education and called for better remuneration for teachers and non-teaching staff of Polytechnics and also commit more resources to research work.

Mr Agyeman congratulated the Police for the professional manner in which they handled the students during the demonstration.

Mr Ludwig Hlodze, a Presidential Aide, who received the petition on behalf of the president, urged the students to calm down as government was working to ensure that they got back to their classrooms.

He extolled the virtues of Polytechnic education to the growth of the country hence the establishment of numerous Polytechnics by former President Jerry John Rawlings.

He pledged to forward the petition to the President for the necessary action to be taken.

The well attended demonstration took the students who were mostly clad in red clothes and hand bands through some principal streets of Accra before the presentation of the petition at the Osu Castle.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mr Nelson Opare, a second year Building Technology student, appealed to government to come to the aid of the lecturers.

Some of the placards they carried read: 93Educational Racism, Atta Why", "Professor We Want Our Lecturers Back," Atta Wake Up" and "Polytechnics Need a Facelift."