When I intentionally restrain myself from writing, I get blocked and then when I recover from it, it becomes impossible for me to find a full stop; all I get to tolerate is a comma. Regardless, I will try and Keep It Short and Simple. I have not been a student of GIJ for long but there is a saying in Fanti that goes, “ma ɔte ne gya hon na ɔnyim mesima ɔrehyehyew ne fa” (the hotness of fire can only be determined by one who sits by it).
Almost every examination season I hear about registration snags of fellow students, and the reasons behind these problems frankly, are no news at all. It is either the students who have paid are having technical difficulties registering electronically or the ones who have not met the fee payment deadline for whatsoever reason are threatened with being denied access to writing their examination.
This year, the issues as far as my knowledge could reach were;
Students missed the opportunity to register because they failed to pay the required amount and in some cases, the required penalty.
Students failed to pay because; Student Loan, GETFund and other Institutional Scholarships that pay directly into the institute delayed the release of funds for beneficiaries.
The complex procedures involved in the online registration.
This semester, according to a communique issued by the SRC on 13/08/18, students’ registration began on 13/08/18 and that students were to pay the required percentage of fees before the deadline of 31/08/18. The communique also notified that there shall not be a second window of registration and that management would strictly adhere to its directive.
To my surprise, the penalty to be paid for late registration had increased by 50% compared to that of the previous semester thus, students who failed to register before the deadline of 31/08/18 were to pay a penalty of GH₵150.00 in addition to the required percentage of fees to be paid in the first semester of every academic year.
As if the 50% increment was not enough, a double penalty was scheduled to take effect from 25/09/18. The penalty now was a GH₵300.00 fee and a blockage of defaulting students’ ID Cards. However, after an SRC intervention and a General Assembly (GA) petition on the 25/09/18, the deadline was extended from 31/08/18 and then away from the 25/09/18 penalty requirement to 27/09/18.
To take a slight U-Turn from the issue of school fees, it took the intervention of the SRC to extend the registration date of re-sit examination to 9/11/18.
Now back on track, after a final deadline of 21/11/18 by management, SRC managed to get management to re-open the portals as some students had legitimate concerns for the delay in payment. I, for one prayed for this notification from the General Secretary, Naa Adoley Moffatt as she had earlier told me she would do.
Let me acknowledge here that before management’s decision to deny defaulting student from writing exam, it had extended deadlines quite a number of times; some on its own and others upon petition by the SRC. I commend management for that. Furthermore, even after being notified that there shall not be a second window of registration and that management would strictly adhere to its directive, it eventually compromised for its students: “This academic year, Management offered students the opportunity to settle their fees by extending the period several times: from end of September, to October, and finally to November 21, 2018.” I strongly disagree with anyone who claims on this particular stand that management did not do enough with respect to extending deadlines and granting grace periods. The Institute cannot operate without students paying their fees; some students were at fault for not paying but with genuine reasons. The only issue of contention was the part where students were not allowed to write their exam because of non-payment of school fees when in the long run, fees would eventually be paid.
When examination started on 01/12/18 for some Undergraduate and Postgraduate students, the defaulted ones were denied access to write their exams due to some of the identified reasons. On Facebook, I saw posts suggesting that students were preparing for a demonstration, and on WhatsApp group pages on campus, lots of group invites concerned about the issue of school fees were flooding in and all of them were already full.
On Sunday, it happened: A Black Sunday. Students angrily protested that “Kumah must resign” and the “Rector must go.” At 3:00pm that day, an Emergency GA Meeting was held and the SRC President was present to address the house after a series of meetings with key stakeholders. Other students were also busy fueling sentiments on social media mainly Facebook and Twitter.
The protest led to the suspension of the papers for the day. By evening that day, GIJ was in the news bulletin of major media houses both TV and Radio. On Monday morning, the former SRC President and current GRASAG President, Martin Ntem Thopmson who had wanted to initially take the issue to court was heard on 3FM. Final year student and morning show host on Radio GIJ, Zak Musbau also fired on UTV. Acting Deputy Rector, Dr. Fosu spoke on Starr FM. The Rector, Prof. Kwamena Kwansah-Aidoo was also on TV3 and later Adom FM. In the press, GIJ made the headlines and other sections of the newspapers. GIJ was virtually everywhere and we knew it was going to be so until students got what they were demanding. Some students released write ups, exhibiting their anger however refusing to show their identities. (I mean how can you call yourself a writer if you don’t have the courage to write your own name?) The irony is that they claim to be communication students of our beloved GIJ yet, they hide behind veils.
At dawn, while I was studying for my Visual Communication paper with doubts as to whether or not the paper would even be written, GIJ issued a media release
“…However, from Monday, December 3, the remaining examinations will come on as planned. Any registered student who is eligible to write the examinations but fails to present him or herself for the examinations does so at his or her own risk.”
Examination continued on Monday at 9:00am. Hmmm, I even got to the hall two minutes late and would have been later if not for the kind ‘lift’ I got from a friend from Police Headquarters to GIJ; ei girls abrɛ ohh. Anyways, the meetings of SRC and Management were said on WhatsAppto be held at 7:30am and 8:00am when Kumah was interviewed on GHOne’s morning news by the news anchor Anita Akuffo. Whatever the time was, it happened before examination started at 9:00am and the period before that time was obviously not enough to complete such a weighty matter but the SRC ensured that the resolution of the issue did not affect the schedule of the rest of the papers. Prior to the meeting, I was personally thinking that it was no longer necessary because the student population used a “necessary evil” as my ‘senior man’ Zak would put it, to get what they wanted, evidently seen in the media release issued by the Institute at the dawn of Monday 3rd December, 2018. However, the SRC went ahead to make sure that we made effective use of what we demanded with life-saving interventions.
The SRC created a Google form for affected students so they could use the database collected from the survey for engagement on the need to allow students to write the exam. The online platform was then opened for three days for students to register. Students on Students Loan, GETFund and other Institutional Scholarships were allowed to write upon production of a letter from those institutions, and the postponed papers were rescheduled. Complex processes involved in the online portal registration were taken care of by management and then the SRC also did their part to help students with it. When the portal opened, a special registration desk was opened to aid affected students. The president designated his own contact number for students still having challenges to send in their index numbers to help them register online.
On December 5th, the last day for the deadline, the SRC intervened again. They made arrangement with the Fidelity Bank Danquah Branch to avail their services to 6:00pm. The president and other executives joined affected students at the bank. Our financial secretary, Redeemer Buatsileft the bank at 7:15pm after stepping in to pay an undisclosed amount of fees for a number of students while successfully lobbying the bank to extend the already extended working hours from 4:00pm to 6:00pm and again to 7:00pm. The Danquah Branch of Fidelity Bank indeed proved that GIJ students were more than customers.
The psychological gaps of doubts that I Initially had about this SRC have been wiped out of my mind. Before their interventions, I felt they had not fought enough for us as a Students’ Representative Council but I was proven wrong as they really stood up to the challenge eventually or even all that while. The examination period was one of the challenging moments of their administration and they administered their duties well. Congratulations to us, students for collectively standing up for our rights, to the Kumahdinkra Administration, to aspirants for their contribution, to Samuel Swanzy-Baffoe of 200C for documenting the resolution met at the emergency GA meeting in relation to the payment of school fees, to Fidelity Bank Danquah Branch, to Festus Harley for the “The Embattled Victor, A Kumahdinkra Story” , to Kabu Nartey for his “zacchaeus” move which proved futile but showed how far he would go to approach concerns of students despite his “vertical deficiency”, to the media and to the other equally important people and bodies who helped GIJ in our trying times.
The fake messages said to be released by the president should clearly tell us something, that perhaps the normal text on WhatsApp with certain signatory emojis and other mandatory element in the SRC’s announcements and other communique are no longer authentic or probably have never been. It’s too easy for others to replicate. Perhaps the SRC’s communique should henceforth come in PDF versions or something that cannot be easily replicated.
We registered our displeasure without breaking our own nails and without touching a single strand of hair of members of management. The SRC stood with the student body on the matter that necessitated the protest. I was quiet all the while because I was a strong member of the students who had to pay penalties in addition to their fees (hmmm achoo! Aba Radical sneezes) I had never been so close to being denied access to writing my exam, facing re-sit or re-take and encountering deferment than this semester so I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity given me by the SRC to make sure I write the exam and write well. Pretending that my last paper, Social Anthropology of Africa wasn’t my worse paper (because I couldn’t confidently answer questions and all the areas I learnt swerved me), I had decided in my life that I really had to make effective use of the SRC’s intervention. (ukr, I can’t lie and I won’t shut up too) Each and every day before vacation when I considered how student were silent on the great help the SRC had been and how I couldn’t wait to finish my exam, never did my thoughts free me of the burning desire to write this piece.
The dates in this document are in the format of day/month/year. Ikr” the numbers were too much ong? I hate numbers too but I had to back the facts with figures…don’t blame me lol.
Kumah ne yɛn adzi no yie na ɔsan so dze yɛn adzi nkra!
OMG, five pages already? Well it turns out that I am not a good kiss-er (keeping it short and simple), am I?
Click here to find attached images and videos-[https://wordpress.com/post/abaradical.wordpress.com/1707]
Aba Radical
The Photographer of Thoughts
Fb: Mercy Aba Blankson
Twitter: @aba radical
IG: Aba Radical
+233249953609
Comment, Like and Share
#AbaIssaRadicalWriter
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment