Why University of Ghana has postponed commencement of 2024/2025 academic year
The University of Ghana has postponed the commencement of the 2024/2025 academic year due to the ongoing strike action by various teacher unions.
The University’s Registrar announced this latest development on September 25, 2024.
However, management indicated that special programmes will proceed as scheduled, emphasising that a new date for the commencement of the 2024/2025 academic year will be announced in due course.
“It is announced for the attention of students and other stakeholders that the commencement of the 2024/2025 academic year has been postponed.
“This is due to the ongoing strike action by various employee groupings. Special programmes will, however, proceed as scheduled. A new date for the commencement of the 2024/2025 academic year will be announced in due course.”
The strike involves various university worker unions, including the Senior Staff Association of Universities of Ghana (SSA-UoG), the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU), the Federation of Senior Staff Association of Ghana (FUSSAG), and the Technical University Senior Administrators’ Association of Ghana (TUSAAG).
They are demanding that the government address issues such as vehicle maintenance and pension allowances.
The teacher unions are also demanding that the government honour their collective bargaining agreement by the end of September 2024.
These industrial actions have paralysed crucial administrative and academic activities, making it impossible to proceed with the new academic year as initially scheduled.
The Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) later joined the senior staff on the indefinite strike on Friday, September 20, 2024, to demand improved working conditions from the government.
In a statement issued on September 18, TEWU said despite an approval letter from the Ministry of Finance, the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) has failed to implement the vehicle maintenance and off-campus allowances.
The union added that the government had failed to recalculate and pay interest accrued from delayed Tier Two deductions to the union’s scheme from January 2010 to 2016.
“In view of the above issues, we have resolved to embark on an indefinite industrial action from Friday, September 20, 2024, until all aforementioned outstanding issues are resolved,” the statement concluded.