The authorities of the University Primary/JHS and the leadership of the University of Ghana (UG), Legon, have made buses available to schoolchildren who use the Link Gate on the road from Achimota and the Westlands. However, the shuttle buses convey the children to school only in the morning.
This decision was taken by the school authorities as a measure to deal with the ban on vehicles which do not have stickers of the University of Ghana from using access roads within the university.
Most parents and guardians who drive their children and wards to the school every morning but do not have stickers, therefore, have to leave them at the gate so that the shuttle buses would convey them to school.
The shuttle buses, however, do not convey the children to the gate after school and parents are expected to pick the children from school after closing using routes other than the Achimota and Westlands entry point.
The move to provide the shuttle buses was as a result of a misunderstanding that arose between parents and guardians and the security men of the university following the blockage of the Link Gate to the university on Monday, March 17, 2014.
As of 8.40a.m on that day, long winding queues of vehicles had formed, blocking the entire stretch of road from Achimota to Legon, thereby making it impossible for vehicles even with stickers to enter the university campus.
Some parents had complained that they got to the entrance of the university gate as early as 6a.m. but at 8.30 a.m. they had not been allowed in because they did not have the stickers.
When the Junior Graphic visited the school three days after the incident, the Deputy Headmistress of the school, Ms Fortune Quarshie, said because the children were very important to them they had provided the shuttle buses to make it convenient for them to get to the school premises without difficulty.
She, however, said since the safety of the children could not be guaranteed when they were dropped at the gate after school, the buses would not drop the children pointing out that parents were required to pick their children up themselves after school, using the Okponglo Road.
Ms Quarshie said the directive by the university had not changed and advised parents and guardians who did not have stickers to set off early and use the Okponglo Road so that their children did not get to school late.
She said the number of children who used the shuttle buses had reduced because a number of parents and guardians had bought the stickers after the recent incident.
Meanwhile, some parents the Junior Graphic spoke to said the decision by the university authorities was unfair.
Mr Doku, a parent said he lives at GIMPA and previously it took him only 10 minutes to send his kids to school but now he spent about 35 minutes to do so and that had created a lot of inconvenience for him.
Another parent, Dr Bernice Amartey, said even though she did not use the Link Gate, she thought the university authorities were not being fair to parents because they paid a fee for development levy apart from the school fees and, therefore should be allowed entry to the campus without such hindrance.
A Class Six pupil we spoke with complained that after school she had to walk for about 400 metres in order to pick a vehicle back home, which was not the case when there was free access to the university campus.
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