Lecturers of technical universities in the country, who have been on strike since Wednesday, are expected to resume their classroom duties today following an intervention by National Labour Commission. The lecturers are protesting the amendment of sections of the 2016 Act that establishes technical universities. The amendment bill, currently before Parliament, seeks to grant powers to the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) to perform functions which the lecturers argue, fall within the purview of the Governing Councils, the Academic Boards and the Principal Officers of Universities in Ghana. The failure of Ministry of Education to address their concerns which have been lingering for months compelled the lecturers to strike on Wednesday, March 7. READ: Kumasi Technical University lecturers begin sit-down strike On Thursday March 8, the National Labour Commission invited the parties – Ministry of Education, the NCTE and the Technical University Teachers Association of Ghana (TUTAG) – to a meeting to resolve the issues. At the end of the meeting, it was Labour Commission directed that TUTAG suspends the ongoing strike and dialogues with NCTE on the matter. The Labour Commission indicated that the issues regarding the contentious bill were not closed as the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education was still taking inputs for the amendment bill before it is laid before the House for consideration and possible passage. President of TUTAG, Dr. Anthony Ayarkwah, told 3news.com Thursday night that the NCTE has sought audience with the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education to engage them to provide further particulars on the matter. “We agreed that we need to dialogue more to see how to get things done,” he said, noting they would meet with NCTE and thoroughly discuss the issues after which they will send their input on the amendment bill the parliamentary committee in a form of memoranda. Meanwhile, he confirmed to 3news.com that “Tomorrow [Friday] we are going start lecturing”. By Stephen Kwabena Effah|3news.com|Ghana Follow @steviekgh_TV3 ]]>
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