Lecturers at the University of Ghana (UG) have returned to the classrooms to begin academic work for the semester.

For the first time after more than seven weeks of their absence, some students had face-to-face interactions with their lecturers during their scheduled class hours on Monday, February 28.

Checks on the university campus indicate classes at the Jones Quartey Building (JQB), the UG Business School and other designated lecture halls across the Institution.

Already, some lecturers have announced meeting students on weekends to make up for some of the topics they could not treat during the strike.

“We ended our ‘Economic Theory’ class some 20 minutes ago. Some lecturers have even announced that we will be taking Saturday lectures. I couldn’t remember anything I learned in the past when I entered a class, but I got to understand everything.”

“We just saw a timetable and a notification that they’d be starting lectures today. We pray they don’t come up with this strike again,” some students told JoyNews.

Meanwhile, the UG chapter of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) has asked its members to obey the National Executive Committee’s call to return to work until a substantive decision regarding the strike.

The Association earlier served notice it will not comply with the School’s decision to commence classes today.

According to a mail signed by Secretary UG-UTAG, Prof. Ransford Gyampo, their resistance was because the UTAG-National Executive Committee’s decision to suspend the strike has been rejected by most members of public universities in Ghana.

But the University responded and directed that the lecturers resume since “the strike has been suspended.”

In view of this, it said, “Heads of Department and Deans, under the supervision and direction of Provosts, are to ensure that academic work for 2021/22 starts on Monday, February 28, 2022, as earlier communicated.”

Meanwhile, lecturers in other public universities have commenced work.