GIJ Students protest over unfair treatment by the Institute's authority

Students who protested at the school

Students of Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) today embarked on demonstration to demand a fair treatment from the authorities of the school.

Dressed in black and red, the aggrieved students threw tables and chairs on some securities at the forecourt after the authorities denied them access to examination hall over online registration.

 According to the protesters both students who fully paid their tuition fees and those who paid more than half of the fees were all barred from taking part in the examination due to their inability to carry on with electronic registration.

Explaining why they did not register online, some said they thought it was unimportant whilst others stated that the e-registration was complex and never did it occur to them that it would have dire consequences on their legibility to partake in examination.

However, some authorities from the school’s administration acknowledged that the students had completed a manual registration before the examination date on Saturday which qualified them to join those who successfully registered online.

Speaking with the demonstrators, they described the decision taken by the institute as “in human, harsh and unfair,” adding that “our future is being played with and all our preparation towards this examination is gradually becoming useless.”

They lamented that their tuition was quite expensive and based on the current economic hardship of the country, the rector had to make them pay 60/40 percentage which had been the norm over the years.

The unsatisfied students accused the new rector and further stated that  he was behind their plight therefore government should intervene to ensure justice is served for them to write their examination without any interference in order for them to boast as graduates in some few years to come.

Students who qualified and wrote the examination, in an interview with Joyceline Natally Cudjoe posited that the institute was demanding too much from them.

"Some of my friends who only owed 100 cedis were sacked from the hall as well as those whose school's ID were missing," they opined.

According to an MA student, the agreement was for every fresh student to pay 70percent of the total fees and register online after online registration they had to present a printed document as evidence of their online registration for inspection during examination which the demonstrators failed to do.

But the undergraduate protestors also argued that the school demanded full tuition.

Meanwhile the school was later closed down and the afternoon papers were cancelled as the issue was sent to court by the school’s SRC.

Alice Okyere expressed worry that the demonstrators should have sent petition earlier for their grievances to be addressed before examination day, saying “it is pathetic for our papers to be cancelled and we have to relearn to write the exams after the issue is resolved.”

Report by Joyceline Natally Cudjoe