GIJ Students Disallowed from Writing Exams over Fees

Scores of students of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) were prevented on Saturday from writing a paper in their ongoing end of semester examinations.

According to sources, the unfortunate situation happened because the students had failed to fully pay their fees.

Students at the beginning of every academic year are required to pay 60 percent of their fees but that was changed suddenly without prior knowledge of the students.

Tempers were wild on the campus, according to the source as the angry students including a mother and her daughter are demanding access to the exams hall.

One of the students who spoke to Accra based Starr FM said:

“I have paid almost all my fees and I am left with just 100 cedis but they prevented me from writing.”

“We promised to pay next semester but they said they won’t allow us to write,” said another.

Earlier this year, some concerned final year students of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) are demanding a breakdown of the astronomical fees paid to the school.

They are requesting the school authorities to break down their fees arguing that their fees keep increasing instead of decreasing.

Finance Minister Ken Ofori- Atta during the the reading of the 2019 budget revealed that government is planning on merging GIJ with the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) and the Ghana Institute of Languages (GIL) into one institution under name National Institute of Communication and Media Arts.

The government says the merger of the three institutions forms part of its commitment to expand tertiary education opportunities to meet increasing demand and the skill needs of the country.

Of the three institutions, only GIJ has been granted a Presidential Charter to award its own degrees, diplomas, and certificates for programmes accredited by the National Accreditation Board, while NAFTI does so due to its affiliation with the University of Ghana.