By Prince J Musa in Kenema
Students that have completed courses in different fields at the Eastern Polytechnic since 2014 have expressed disappointment over the administration of the college for not performing one of the mandatory functions of a tertiary institution.
According to some of the aggrieved students that have pursued courses ranging from Teacher’s Certificates, diplomas, higher national diplomas to degree programmes, the college has not held any graduation ceremony since 2014.
Mohamed Saidu Koroma from the Education Department in the college told Politico that since they completed their degree course in 2017 they have not been given their certificates and that the administration has not done anything to address the situation unlike other tertiary institutions across the country. ”The administration seems not to be serious over our graduation because nothing is been said about it,” he said.
Jestina Mamie Dauda another student that completed her SRN in nursing said that if the people in the eastern region are yearning for a university, people need to be seeing graduation ceremonies taking place to encourage high school students enroll in the college.
” This kind of action discourages some people doing courses at Polytechnic and prefer to go to Njala, UNIMAK, FBC and other places”, she said. She therefore called on the new Minister of Technical and Higher Education to intervene in the situation before they lose their patience.
Another aggrieved former student Keifala Joseph Konneh said that their certificates are with the college and some people may want to travel or even need their certificates for further study purposes yet they can’t access them.
The Registrar at the Eastern Polytechnic, John Juana said since he assumed office that has been one of the problems he inherited from the previous administration.
He confirmed that since 2014 the college has not undertaken any convocation ceremony saying all certificate course students at the eastern polytechnic do take their final year exams under NCTVA.
Juana said the institution does not have control over the NCTVA examination body as most times they delay those results which also affect the college academic calendar.
He claimed the degree programmes are affiliated with Njala University but that the college will not go ahead to stage a graduation for only degree programmes leaving out other course areas that have done certificates in their respective faculties.
As an administration, he said they are doing all they could to ensure that students who have completed their courses over the period do graduate and appealed to them to exercise patience as they push for the right things to happen.
Meanwhile the Director of NCTVA Eng. Mohamed Jalloh confirmed that, one of the reasons some results are not released is to help the college retrieve their fees from students who have not fulfilled their commitment with the colleges, adding that another factor could be lack of continues assessment grades which should be submitted by the college from the lecturers. He also stated some students may also have references but will still go ahead to buy the NCTVA form for which they will not stop them from taking the exams but that they will not publish those results.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (21/04/21)
