GIJ SRC President discourages students against boycotting online classes
The Students Representative Council of the Ghana Institute of Journalism, Joseph Agbezuke, does not side with his constituents in threatening to boycott online academic activities.
Some students of the Institute are against the decision to continue the rest of the second semester of the 2019/2020 academic year online following the closure of the school to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the country.
Among other things, these students believe that the high cost of internet data and poor internet connectivity in some parts of the country does not favour online learning, thus leaving some of their colleagues at a disadvantage.
There have been reports of some students threatening to boycott online academic activities if management of the Institute does not move on addressing their concerns.
But Joseph Agbezuke, in an interview with UniversNews, disagrees with students calling for a boycott.
“We don’t really agree to boycotting e-learning or calling off any form of exams during this period but if e-learning would be effective then appropriate measures should be taken or it should be called off,” he said
Joseph Agbezuke is rather calling on management of the school to suspend online modes of academic engagements until measures are put in place to “ensure that majority of the students are comfortable.”
The GIJ SRC President is also calling on the Education Ministry to lay out a road map for all tertiary institutions to aid in smooth operation of their respective e-learning systems.
According to him, the same “nationalistic approach” being employed to contain the spread of the coronavirus should be used in the educational sector since the issue was also affecting students.
“Since we’re using a more nationalistic approach to handle COVID 19 in terms of the health sector, I think a similar approach would be better to handle it. The Ministry should have a road map across board for all universities considering the plight of students, making sure that necessary provisions are made for students before rolling out e-learning,” he suggested
–
Story by: Josephing Mawuena Azumah