Some student leaders at the Ghana Institute of Management have petitioned their school management to provide internet data for students as the school has moved to e-learning.

The petition is spearheaded by the Students Representative Council General Assembly Speaker, Rt. Hon Sandra Emefa Dziwornu.

According to the students’ leaders, the directive from school authorities for academic activities to be undertaken online could place some students at a disadvantage.

“While we commend management for this laudable idea, we leaders and members of General Assembly have realized how this directive could disadvantage some students from benefitting.

At this time, the financial status of some students may not allow them to always have constant supply of data in order to enjoy lectures online,” part of the letter reads

They are, therefore, requesting that students are provided with internet data to enable them to partake in all online lectures.

They are suggesting that school authorities partner with telecommunication networks for the provision to be made.

“Other Universities have made provisions for their students to each receive an amount of data to facilitate the newly introduced online learning system. We believe the management of our school can do the same for students by partnering with Telecommunication Networks and other data service providers to make this provision.

We also believe strongly, that doing this will be a good way to expend our facility user fees as students are off-campus,” the letter concludes.

Following a directive from President Akufo-Addo that all schools should be closed down in a bid to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, management of the Ghana Institute of Journalism announced that it had moved to virtual learning.

“To ensure that academic work continues, it has been decided that all Academic Staff should put in place the necessary arrangements to ensure that teaching and learning is conducted online (email, WhatsApp, Telegram, Google classroom, etc). We are happy to inform all students that academic staff have complied with this directive and will be teaching online over the period,” part of a statement issued by school management read.

University of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and Ashesi University are some of the tertiary institutions in the country that have moved to continue academic activities online.