President of the National Union of Ghanaian Students (NUGS), Jay Hyde has pleaded with the government of Ghana to liaise with the governing boards of all educational institutions nationwide to suspend payment of school fees owed by students to a later date.
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According to him, the government has not even provided student loan beneficiaries with loans to settle their fees. And parents, guardians and students who care for themselves are also finding it difficult to raise funds to settle the remainder of their school fees because of the current situation in the country.
He noted that the call had become necessary because some of his colleagues have been denied access to e-learning platforms because they owed fees and that was affecting their studies.
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Speaking in an interview on Happy98.9FM’s ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ he said, “After Ghana recorded our 1st COVID-19 case, schools were directed to close down and encouraged to use e-learning platforms for the remainder of the semester. But now, some of our colleagues have been denied access to these platforms because of debts they owe the school. We all know these are not normal times and ask for government’s intervention”.
On his authority, the union can only plead with government to suspend the payment of school fess and mediate with school authorities for students to be granted access to e-learning platforms and settle their debts later on.
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Jay Hyde further appealed to government to also see to the reduction of data charges to help them access and partake in all classes on the e-learning platforms. He noted, “Data is quite expensive now and we have to purchase some regularly to partake in 3-4 lectures a day”.
By: Joel Sanco