Students hold principal hostage over unpaid allowances

Students of the Korle-Bu School of Hygiene on Tuesday vented their anger about the non-payment of their allowances on their principal, blocking him from leaving the school campus.

The students formed a human barricade to stop the principal from leaving the institutions, moments after the school authorities issued a notice ordering the students to leave the campus by 12 noon on Tuesday.

Mr Isaac Newton Gyahene had no option but to stop.

The students have resolved not to leave the campus nor write their exit exams in protest of the non-payment of allowances.

But the school management issued the order to aid the fumigation of the school campus.

Speaking in an interview on Citi FM, the Principal said he had done all he could to persuade the students to calm down to no avail.

He explained the authorities had planned to open to continuing students from next week.

However, in compliance with the COVID-19 protocols, the authorities scheduled a fumigation exercise for Wednesday.

Mr Gyahene also stated that management had deliberations with the final year students concerning their exam timetable for which they agreed to start the examination on July 23.

But the examination was postponed due to the fight for allowances by the students. The students went picketing at the Ministry of Health.

The examination date was moved to this month.

He said he was surprised the students were unleashing their anger on the school as the challenges of their allowance had to be addressed by the Ministry of Sanitation and not the school.

Mr Gyahene y stated that the two available options for the students was to either channel their grievances to the relevant ministries or write the exams and leave.

H asserted that he could not continue to keep them in the school as they had also refused to write the exams.

In August, the students picketed at the Health Ministry over their unpaid allowances. It took a police intervention to disperse them from the school.

The students are demandiing their GHC 400 per month allowances which they had failed to receive since 2017.

They feared their allowances had been completely scrapped without reason, pointing out that their colleagues in nursing training schools were receiving their allowances.

The final year students on embarked on an earlier demonstration on the August 6, at the premises of the Sanitation Ministry to picket and convey their discontent.

They brought along their mattresses, clothing and some food, to indicate their preparedness for an enduring campaign, but were however sent away by the police who claimed protests were not allowed in this pandemic era.

The leadership of the Coalition of Schools of Hygiene students announced in August that its members will not sit for the end of semester examination meant for final year students until their three-year locked-up allowances were paid.

The Nana Akuffo Addo administration restored nurses and teacher-trainee in September 2017 which was cancelled by the previous Mahama administration.