By Nasratu Kargbo
The Minister of Technical and Higher Education, Dr. Alpha Tejan Wurie has on the 3rd June 2021 told newsmen that government sponsored students at the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology will resume classes in the coming September/ October academic year.
The Minister said this at the weekly government press briefing at the Ministry of Information and Communication. He said President Julius Maada Bio advised that since the university administration has agreed for a 50% reduction of the fees for two sets of students, they should consider paying for them so they could proceed with their courses.
“There are two sets of students, there are 320 (three hundred and twenty) students that have completed their diploma and could not get their certificates because of non-payment. On compassionate grounds, we are accepting to pay a thousand two fifty for each student. There are other 644 (six hundred and forty-four) degree students, who should have been in their final year; they have a whole year to go. We are going to ensure that they would be part of the September 2021/2022 academic year,” he assured.
He further stated that government is going to work out a plan to pay for the two cohorts, but that there is a total of 410 (four hundred and ten) other students who are in year 3 pursuing various degree programmes and another set of 72 (seventy-two) diploma students; for whom he said they need another 50% reduction.
He noted that the students are not to be blamed, as they are just beneficiaries.
Talking about tertiary education as a whole, Dr. Wurie explained that his ministry intends to bring all tertiary institutions under one calendar; from February to September, and that all convocations will be held in April. He went on to say that on the 26th May 2021 they had a meeting with all Vice-chancellors and principals to talk about administrative and quality assurance.
“We should know who is a student, when should you pay your fees, and there should be fixed entry requirements for the different universities,” he said.
The Malaysian run university, named after Dr. Sri Paduka Limkokwing, was brought into the country by the former All Peoples Congress Party (APC) administration in 2014, on the basis of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the University and the then government.
According to the MoU, the government was to award 1, 200 scholarships to Sierra Leonean students each academic year. That agreement, according to officials of the current Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) administration, was fraudulent, and not in the interest of the country.
This led the Bio administration to refuse to honour the financial terms of the agreement, leading to the suspension of all courses for the government-sponsored students.
This has also led to several protests by the students who have called on the government to consider their plight as innocent citizens who just made use of an opportunity provided by government.
The latest move by the students was public begging on major streets and offices in Freetown to raise funds so they could continue their courses after about two years break.
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