

University of Ghana, Legon

KNUST campus
The Chairman of Parliament’s Committee on Education, Mr Williams Agyapong Quaittoo, has indicated that House was not in a hurry to pass the Public University Bill (PUB).
According to him, before the bill could be passed, concerns raised by all stakeholders would have to be addressed, saying that’s exactly what the government was doing.
He stated that what happened in Parliament on Monday was just a second reading of the bill and not a passage.

Prof Aaron Michael Oquaye, Speaker of Parliament
He said copies of the bill were made available to all stakeholders yesterday to ensure that all grievances and concerns had been addressed before its passage, and that stakeholders should not be agitated.
“The bill, as you know, went through a first presentation to Parliament. That was withdrawn and a new one was laid. The bill is still under consideration.
“What [the] University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) and others are seeking to know is what is in the new one, and that is what we have made available now.
“This morning, we met UTAG and others stakeholders and gave copies of the new bill to them. Key players in of academia were present at a meeting this morning, and they have all received copies of the new bill. They are to study it and bring their comments for consideration.”
Mr Quaittoo’s comments were in response to news about the passage of the bill in Parliament on Monday, which generated a lot of controversy among academia and the public.
The reason for the agitations about the bill stems from the fact that Parliament didn’t correct the supposed anomalies that were contained in the bill.
It would be recalled that the PUB was introduced in Parliament some months ago.
At the time it was introduced, the bill sought to give the government power to appoint majority of members of the University Council.
The Council then has the power to appoint and fire public university officials. This didn’t sit well with the Minority in Parliament, civil society and the university community, and as such pressure was mounted on the government to withdraw the bill.
Those who opposed the bill at that time held that if passed into law would take away the education freedom from the University Councils, and would create more problems than it seeks to resolve.
Consequently, the government withdrew the bill and laid a new one in Parliament on Tuesday, November 3, 2020.
But, upon hearing that the new bill had been passed on Monday, which wasn’t the case, the university community protested again. However, Mr Quaittoo gave the assurance that the bill wasn’t passed, but rather went through a second reading.
He stated that issues of composition of university’s governing board and all others that were opposed by the university community in the first bill have all been addressed in the new bill, and pleaded with the members to take time and go through the new bill.
Mr Quaittoo urged the university community, and all stakeholders who will be affected by the bill, to take time and peruse it to ensure that all their concerns had been addressed in the new bill.
He also encouraged the public to also get copies of the bill for study, because the government wouldn’t want to pass a bill that would generate controversies. “We are all working together. We don’t want to pass any bill that those who are to be affected by it will have comments on.”
The post Parl Not In Rush To Pass Public Varsity Bill appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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