Two weeks ago, teachers of all 38 Colleges of Education across the country laid down their tools.

Their demand was for government to pay incremental salary arrears owed them since October 2012 when the schools were elevated to tertiary status following the passage of the Colleges of Education Act 847 in 2012.

When reporters visited the Wesley College of Education (WESCO) at Suame Roundabout in Kumasi, the effects of the strike were biting.

Classes were empty with no academic work ongoing as students were seen roaming about and chatting in groups.

The only busy area was the school’s administration block where final year students were gathered to collect their feeding grant reimbursements.

For the third years doing their practical teaching as mentees, they could not be bothered but the eight hundred first year and second year students are bearing the brunt.

The students will not speak to Ultimate News reporters because their student leaders and school authorities had warned them not to.

A Students Representative Council (SRC) executive who interacted with the media described how worried the strike was seriously affecting the academic timetable of the students.

According to him, quizzes that students were supposed to write have all been kept on hold.

A level one hundred student was also worried freshmen have been left in the wilderness not knowing how they will write their first semester exams in January next year.

He indicated that the only news they had gathered from the school authorities was that all their quizzes which had been delayed will begin a day after the teachers resume from their indefinite strike.

The situation was no different in the St Louis College of Education at Mbrom. The only difference was that students were not roaming about.

The school’s vice principal who was spotted standing on the balconies of the administration ensuring some level of sanity on campus told Ultimate News that the students were doing their own private studies.

He however, confirmed that none of the teachers or tutors had turned up in the school to teach.

The school’s principal just like that of the Wesley College of Education were all away for an annual heads of colleges of education workshop outside the metropolis.

It appears the students would have to endure this trend a while longer until government finds it needful and necessary to resolve the demands and grievances of lecturers of Colleges of Education.