A group of students from the Accra School of Hygiene, Korle-Bu, has taken their grievances to the streets, protesting against a directive from the school administration. The students were ordered to vacate the school premises by 12 noon on Tuesday, September 8, 2020. The school management stated that this decision was influenced by a letter from the Students Representative Council (SRC) calling for the suspension of their end-of-semester examination.
The SRC’s decision to suspend the exams was attributed to concerns over the unequal disbursement of training allowances. Mr. Freeheart Owusu Ampomah, the President of the Students Representative Council (SRC) of the Ghana School of Hygiene, Korle Bu, revealed that the clearance received for the payment of allowances was flawed. He pointed out that while final year students were supposed to receive a 30-month allowance, the clearance indicated only 10 months of payment. This led to unrest among the students, particularly those whose allowances were completely scraped off as per the clearance.
In response to the situation, student leaders engaged with the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources on September 7, with the ministry promising to rectify the errors in the clearance. The students, however, expressed skepticism and claimed that the ministry was using the school authority as a means to eliminate some students from receiving the allowance.
Meanwhile, Mr. Isaac Newton Dzahene, Acting Principal of the Korle-Bu School of Hygiene, expressed his dissatisfaction with the students’ handling of the situation. He emphasized that the matter had escalated beyond the school authority, reaching the ministerial level. He questioned the students’ decision to halt their exams after initially agreeing to continue, leaving the school administration in a dilemma.
The students’ protest underscores their determination to address the issue of unequal allowances and prompts discussions about the handling of financial matters within educational institutions.
Source : gbcghanaonline