The Executive Committee of the Students’ Representative Council of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) has petitioned the management of the institute to halt the e-learning and online examination introduced by the authority.
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According to the leadership of the student’s body, the move has over the weeks raised so much unrest among students due to a number of concerns particularly, high data costs, poor network in some areas and the overload of assignments on students by some lecturers. “There also remains the issue of persons who do not have smartphones or laptops for such endeavors as well as the psychological unrest on the part of many due to the entire COVID-19 pandemic.”
Authorities at GIJ on Wednesday, April 15, issued guidelines informing students of the online examinations scheduled for May 25. Similar directives were also issued by the University of Professional Studies, Accra, (UPSA) informing their students of e-exams scheduled for Monday, May 18.
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In a statement issued by the student’s mouthpiece read “Per a survey conducted by the Executive Committee, majority of students are not happy with the current situation and are therefore calling for the suspension of the e-learning initiative. In view of this, the Students Representative Council calls for the suspension of online lectures and subsequently the end-of-semester examinations.”
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The student’s body, however, admitted that these are not normal times but…“The Students’ Representative Council understands that these are not normal times, however, it is wise that academic work continues. But we stand by the position that before academic work continues, the above requests should be met. This will make the adaptation of the e-learning and the online exams more feasible on the part of students. Until these requests are met, we call on Management to suspend online lectures as well as the end of semester exams. The SRC is in no way calling for the cancellation of the exams, however, we request that better provisions are made and the necessary measures put in place to clear the road for successful completion of the semester.
Below is the full release
