The recent directive by the education ministry not to pay utility bills at the residential areas at the various public tertiary institutions have sparked a lot of reactions from a cross section of students especially among student leaders with the latest coming from the Students Representative Council (SRC) President of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
The deputy minister of education in charge of tertiary, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa announced officially on Tuesday, 14th April at the CCB Auditorium at the Government’s newly designed programme “Campus Connect” that the government of Ghana can no longer take care of utility bills of students at the residential areas.
When given the opportunity to ask a question at the programme, the SRC president of KNUST, Duke Aaron Sasu asked the education ministry whether the government is no more paying the residential utility bills as a result of the government’s inability to pay or it is an attempt to ensure equity.
Reacting to the issue, the deputy education minister in charge of tertiary said, as a result of the increase in the number of public universities, the government finds it very difficult to cater for that in recent times.
Some students have however hit hard on the government for taking such a decision. They describe the action of the current decision makers as very hypocritical and not taking the plight of the average Ghanaian into consideration.
Some made references to the benefits those policy makers received while they were in school. Felix Anim Apau, a final year student at KNUST openly registered his displeasure with the current leadership of the country in the presence of the entourage of ministers when he was given the opportunity to speak.
He believes that in as much as the government is facing financial challenges, taking off the subsidies is not the best decision to take.
In an interview on Focus Morning Show on Focus FM, the campus radio station at KNUST, some students called on policy makers to reverse this decision describing it as “unfair and hypocritical” if they also do not make sacrifices with respect to their salaries, allowances, subsidies, monuments among others from the government while they can afford.
