All over Ghana in tertiary institutions, many a student goes through the trouble of beating the deadline for registration when a semester begins.

Some students are able to register in and on time in the first semester, especially the first years and some continuing students, but are found wanting in the second semester.

Here, the cane for late registration is stroked hard on their bare buttocks. Imagine the pain.

This phenomenon has been christened as “Penalty for late registration” and students have to cough up an additional fee to pay their respective schools in order to be officially registered.

Authorities of most universities in Ghana are charging students from GHS 100 and above as penalty for late registration. 

Under the huge tree inside the Mataheko campus of Central University College to the Kenkey-eating joint of Amalia at the Ghana Institute of Journalism through to the Hall of Gentlemen of the University of Cape Coast  and to the blue anchor at the Regional Maritime University, students mangle words of frustration and dislike  for the payment of a penalty for late registration.

No matter their (students) complaints and agitations, even from their parents and guardians who foot their academic bills, they end up paying the penalty. Now, here is my trouble. I liken majority of the students to a frail goalkeeper under the guidance and mercy of diarrhea who has no choice but to position himself in the goalpost to receive a dreaded penalty shot from an Asamoah Gyan of a university administration.

While the penalty shot is about to be taken, the student soils him or herself continuously in a diarrhea fashion and becomes very weak and dizzy  and loses focus on the penalty taker and lacks the goalkeeping  strength  and agility of Ali Jarah to ward off the ball from crossing the goalpost. Sadly, a goal is scored and the referee and his two assistants who are the school authorities would have none of the goalkeeper’s genuine concerns.

It is trite and commonsensical that if students failed to register on time by not paying their school fees, the schools will suffer the consequences of not running the administration smoothly due to financial constraints which may affect the academic calendar and invariably affect the entire student body. This is especially the case for public tertiary institutions that are off government subventions and depend on internally generated funds to survive. It is out from these same fees that students pay that the Student Representative Councils (SRCs) also get their dues to run SRC activities.

The diarrhea-stricken-goalkeeper analogy represents poverty and lack. Genuinely, most of these students do not have all the money to pay to beat the deadline for late registration. Escaping this deadline under the zeitgeist of harsh economic conditions in the country is like asking Kwesi Pratt Jnr  and Kwaku Baako  Jnr to appear together on Joy FM’s socio-political news analysis programme, News File, on Saturdays.

Such is the headache of the average Ghanaian tertiary student who also has to bear the brunt of paying rent for a hostel, pay transport fares to and from school, buy books and other academic materials for studies among other expenditures that now makes tertiary education a haven for only the rich.

It is worthy to note, regrettably, that most of the authorities in charge of these tertiary institutions and the people who call the shots of governance in this country benefited from free education, accommodation and other privileges that made the learning and teaching environment very conducive for them during their time. What changed? Your guess is as BAD (don’t say good) as mine.

Are we not tired of the timeworn cliché of  “Education is expensive and not for the poor”? Why must students continue to be punished for their lack and poverty? You do not have all the money to pay your fees for registration yet you are being told to go look for an additional fee to pay as a penalty for late registration: double agony. 

We can not continue to keep swimming in this dangerous tide if we want to get the best of our human resource as products of our educational system and also make education accessible to all. The temptation for some students to spend monies given them to pay school fees on other things most of which are frivolous may be high if university authorities have no rule(s) or punishment(s) for late registration. But how many students fall in that category? The majority simply do not have the money to pay on and in time.

It is a chicken and egg situation that must be handled with utmost care. I suggest school authorities relax the rules on late registration by either drastically reducing the penalty fee and or extending the deadline for registration dates to a reasonable period that both parties can largely appreciate. The option of scrapping it off may be farfetched considering the realities of our time. Nevertheless, that option can also be looked at critically by the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders in order for the Ghanaian student and his or her school authorities to breathe some air of relief.

To cap it all, monies made from the payment of such penalties should be used for projects that are visible to students and part of it also given to the SRCs to run their activities.'

The writer is a student of the Ghana Institute of Journalism and can be reached on adzahkoku@yandex.com.