GIJ should reconsider deferment order because of Covid-19 - Dr. Apaak
 |
| GIJ |
Dr. Clement Apaak, Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament's Education Committee, has weighed in on the Ghana Institute of Journalism controversy (GIJ).
The school's administration issued a directive instructing all students who paid their fees after the registration deadline to postpone the academic year.
Many students and Ghanaians were apparently outraged by the development, which resulted in the school being heavily criticized, with some students staging a protest on the school's premises on Wednesday, March 24, 2021.
In a statement issued the same day, the school justified the decision, stating that it should not be viewed as a punishment but rather as an opportunity for students to maintain their studentship.
Dr. Apaak argued on Citi FM's Eyewitness that the student's excuse of the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for the delay in paying the fees is justifiable.
“We all know the impact of COVID-19 on our Ghanaian economy and the global economy. We know how parents have lost jobs and sold assets. If the students registered late or have not been able to register, and they are making the case that it is as a result of COVID, I don’t think anyone should doubt them,”
Dr. Apaak proposed that GIJ allow students to sit for the exams that will be administered in the coming weeks.
In the case of final-year students, he claims that GIJ can make payment of outstanding fees a requirement for graduation rather than forcing them to defer their studies.
“The institution should extend its magnanimity to the students because these are students who are not going to disappear from the surface of the earth, allow them to write the exams. They have prepared and are in the right frame of mind [to write the exams] in spite of all these socio-economic challenges that COVID-19 had brought upon them. [Allow them to write the exams] then after that, those who are completing will surely come to graduate. They will come for their certificate and whatever amount they owe the school, clearly you will ask them to pay before they get their certificate. Those who are continuing students would have to come again and register for the next semester so why can that not be the way to address the situation under this very trying times which has not been wished by any Ghanaian let alone a student,” he argued.
The Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) management, on the other hand, has explained the events that led to their deferment directive in a statement.
The directive, according to the statement, should be viewed as a "opportunity."
By Kandey Alhassan
Post a Comment