UTAG prez berates government for laying off retired university professors

The national president of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), Dr. Harry Agbanu has expressed disappointment in government, accusing it of making senior lecturers above retiring age redundant. Speaking with Winston Amoah, host of Sunrise on 3FM, Dr. Agbanu pointed out that professors are assets to university education, condemning government’s directive laying off retiring lecturers. The retirees, he said, have been removed from government pay roll in order for them to be paid by the universities with the internally generated fund.. “The main issue is that professors…train the postgraduate students, mentor the newly retired staff and they constitute the bedrock of any university’s performance” he stated. “The same government has written, demanding that 34 percent of all internally generated fund should be deposited in the consolidated account,” he noted. He lamented that, in most part of the world, it is unusual for universities to be barred from engaging the services of retired senior members. Dr. Agbanu  said “it is unfortunate government is thinking like that and it is the same government which is not allowing the universities to recruit new staff.” He explained that universities need more senior lecturers, saying the voluminous nature of their work is detrimental to their health. He noted that the way universities are being treated like public institutions is not the best. By Asia Osman | editors.3news.com | Ghana