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Permit me, please, to take your mind through a couple of scenarios.
Now, imagine your ward having to defer the pursuit of an academic study due to an over-reliance on student loans in getting fees paid. Or consider, for a moment, that they’re only deferring said studies because the ongoing novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic doesn’t allow you to get money to them easily enough for their upkeep.
Well, let’s say the school implemented an E-learning platform to compensate for all the hours of face-to-face lectures suspended because of COVID-19, only for your child to still defer because they weren’t briefed about such an arrangement. Spare a thought, too, for those students who are yet to pay their fees and are thus denied access to the aforementioned virtual platform for lectures.
All of those situations exist, not just hypothetically, but in the real world — at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), specifically — and such injustices make you wonder if this tertiary institution of great repute really has its stakeholders at heart or only operates for the selfish purpose of achieving financial gain.
And what about the Students Representative Council (SRC)?
In whose interests does it really exist?
UPSA has done enough to slow the spread of the virus on its campus, granted, but what measures are being put in place to cater for the poor students who have to deal with the challenges described at the outset. Surely, none of this is their fault, and the authorities would do well to steer affairs in the students’ favor to ensure the convenience of learning isn’t needlessly obstructed by factors beyond their control.
It’s the least that could be done, really.
Lawrence Baidoo, concerned student (UPSA)
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