GIJ, WHAT EXACTLY DO
WE PAY FOR?
My dear colleague
students, may I have 3 minutes of your precious revision week time to draw your
attention to a pertinent issue. How do
you feel when you give out your money without knowing what you are paying for?
How do you assess the value of that huge or scanty amount you pay for fees?
Well, I feel cheated and insulted for always giving my hard-earned money to GIJ
without the benefit of knowing exactly what I purchase and at what price.
Yes, I do recall that when I received
my admission letter from the University of Ghana, there was nothing hidden as
regards the information I needed to feel at home. Every bit of information
about social life, academic work and finance was readily made available.
Everything was plain and bare, you may call it transparent. However, what is of
interest to us and triggers this write-up lies in the last italized sentence on
page 9 of the university of Ghana manual on registration and orientation for freshmen;
it reads “NOTE: Detailed Fee Schedules
are available on the university’s website www.ug.edu.gh”
. There I got to know how much I was paying for what service or facility. Is this too much a
task for GIJ?
I remember I caught a
glimpse of a friend’s admission letter to Kwame Nkrumah University of Science
and Technology and every pesewa of his fees was explicitly stated. I still have fresh memories of the right I
enjoyed knowing about my school fees way back in Notre Dame Seminary Senior
High School, even the 1.20 pesewas the government paid as my feeding grant .Surprisingly,
when Ghana Institute of Journalism offered me an admission, I was still looking
forward to receiving a second letter which will indicate the composition of the
fees. To my utter shock these were already made computations that only God and
the school administration can tell us what and what they added, multiplied,
subtracted or perhaps divided to get such absolute figures. May be it is
because we appear so comfortable about it and no one questions why. Before, I
thought the act was typical of those institutions they called professional
institutions but when I chanced on my elder brother’s Institute of Professional Studies(IPS)
admission letter I was convinced that it is the uniqueness of GIJ.
Forgive
me if I bore you with my personal profile but it will actually serve as a pivot
around which the write-up will revolve and also expose to what happens in other
tertiary institutions. Let me reiterate that the underlying factor of this
piece does not hinge on whether or not the fees are exorbitant, for that is
relative depending on the individual and the economic time. Neither does it
border on embezzlement or corruption but it is basically transparency driven, accountability
motivated and assessment oriented
For the purposes of assessment,
not only can we assess the performance of the school, but also the performances
of institutions and groups within the school. For instance the current SRC has
on its list of achievements that, it has succeeded in negotiating for the
reduction of fees for continuing regular students. For the SRC to argue in that
light without the breakdown of fees will only bring to bear a fallacy or at best
a very very weak argument. It will be sheer naivety and gullibility on our part
to be carried away by the typographical display of the numbers; we should as
well consider what the numbers stand for and read them “metaphysically” and logically.
The fact that continuing regular students now pay less than they paid last year
in itself doesn’t guarantee a reduction. Of course we now pay for fewer
services from GIJ than we did last year; we no longer pay for ID cards, we
won’t pay for matriculation and some things I do not know. Under normal
circumstances, if the cost of these things really reflect in the fees then
obviously continuing students especially level 200 students, whether regular
students or fee-paying should pay less
than last year. Well, there may be truth in the SRC’s self-assessment but unfortunately
it is hidden in the failure of administration to make known the composition of
school fees.SRC can vindicate itself if it takes on this issue on behalf of the
student body to show us where exactly the “reduction” affected.
Fellow students, imagine one day you are
asked to pay some amount of money at library before having access to its
material or you are asked to pay before using the lavatory at the time you are very
“pressed” or you board the school shuttle and all of a sudden you hear someone
say “yesss! Front” or after a lecture the lecturer demands to levy all the
students for his tuition, in each case what will be your reaction? What will be
your defense remarks? What will you use to substantiate your stance? You will
realize that whatever you say in each case will only be based on assumptions
and not evidence. We need to have strong backing in such situations like it
happened in the university of Ghana last year around this same time; first
semester, when the continuing students noticed an increment in their
fees.Refering to the detailed schedule of their fees, they realized that they
were made to pay for an exam meant for only level 100 students, so they
detected it and protested. Considering the current system of GIJ If such things
happen, I can guarantee that it will only be by magic or some sort of divine
intervention that we identify them. Why can’t we also have the right to know
what we pay for and how much we pay for it?
Fellow students, I am glad to have
brought to your notice something you probably overlooked or perhaps did not
know how to initiate an action to that effect but that should not incite you or
elicit an irrationally action. Take it easy! Give it a sober reflection and if
the need be, act and act responsibly. Have you ever imagined how much seriousness
you will attach to your lectures if you learn that you pay so much for tuition?
Of course it can change our apathy towards things we pay huge sums yet do not
patronize them. I do not think we will be accused of any crime if we prudently
challenge what appears to be a status quo. Obviously not, because I know the
rector, the vice rector or any member of the administrative body of GIJ will
certainly challenge his or her bank if they receive a pay slip that indicates
only their monthly salary without recourse for deductions, allowances and
arrears. In as much as they will like to have an explicit computation and
display of the salary, they should do well to do likewise for us in accordance
with the biblical text which states “do unto others what you want done unto you”
Ladies
and gentlemen of this noble institution, may I leave you with this; it’s the
little things that matter. If we cannot stand up and fix these little little
things, then any intention to fix the big ones will be a pipe dream. Yes we
can!!To my dear SRC executives, the onus is yours, IF ONLY YOU HAVE FOUGHT THE FIGHT AND WON IT, THEN BRING HOME THE TITLE
LET US ALL SEE IT and this lies in the composition of GIJ school fees. My
name is P D Wedam and this is my mind. MAY SUCCESS BE YOUR PORTION IN THE
EXAM.GOOLUCK
1 comment:
Well done Dennis. This is the kind of creative critism we need to read about.Just GIJ administrative body as well as the SRC of the school will give it the need consideration.
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