By Allieu Sahid Tunkara
After 22 years the Mass Communication Department at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone (USL), is set to get a new curriculum. The document which underwent a validation exercise last week contains an expanded communication and media courses, from undergraduate to doctoral degrees.
The department is the brainchild of Mrs Bernadette Cole, currently senior lecturer and head of the Alumni and International Relations Directorate, who brought up the initiative that culminated into the Mass Communication Department back in 1993, under the leadership of the then National Provisional Ruling Council.
Professor Rictchard M’bayo was tasked by the university to undertake a research leading to the production of a comprehensive document that would guide the department on how to deliver on the new courses.
During his presentation at the validation session at the Committee Room of the University House, Professor M’bayo recalled that at the time of his research 250 students were enrolled at the department which had only eight full-time and eight part-time teaching staff. He said the department was chronically underfunded but that with a strong and committed leadership over the years they made significant strides in the job market against all odds.
“Under a new leadership, the department will be the best as it will cater for programmes that will be at par with universities in the West Africa sub-region and in the US,” Professor Mbayo assured, adding that with the new document the department would produce exceptional students as its programmes of study would be harmonised with those of other universities in Africa.
A student who acquired a degree in Mass Communication would be useful anywhere in the continent, he said.
In a two-hour power point presentation, Professor Mbayo outlined some of the challenges the department was grappling with, among them low institutional support and low capacity of the teaching staff. He said although the current crop of lecturers was professionally qualified, the lack of lecturers with doctoral degrees was a major limitation to its further advancement. This situation, he explained, was the main reason for the media reform strategy brought up by the Media Reform Coordinating Group (MRCG).
The MRCG comprises professional institutions which, with the financial backing of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), have spearheaded the review of the Mass Communication curriculum as part of a long term media reform agenda for the Sierra Leone. The group`s members include the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), the Independent Radio Network and Women in the media.
Professor M’bayo said strong institutional support in terms of provision of logistics for growth and faculty development was needed alongside stakeholder support for the goals to be achieved.
MRCG coordinator, Ransford Wright, said the need to improve professional journalism brought about his organisation. He assured their commitment to continue working to ensure that there was quality media education in the country.
“Energies will have to be exerted to realise the objectives of providing classrooms, chairs and motivation for lecturers so that the Mass Communication [Department] will be a centre of excellence,” he said.
SLAJ President Kelvin Lewis said Sierra Leone needed not to wait further but to help build the body of knowledge required in the mass communication field. He informed the audience about the SLAJ-Airtel Agreement which he said was about building media capacity.
“Airtel Company would provide five thousand dollars and a free ticket for any media student who wins an approval to pursue a doctoral degree in media studies,” he said.
Lewis also said that it was not enough to always criticise the media but it was time to join the college authorities in making the critical change needed.
Vice Chancellor and Principal of the University of Sierra Leone, Professor Ekundayo Thompson, said the new curriculum was in line with his agenda of deep change when he took over leadership of the university. “A collaborative Masters programme in public research and policy is being delivered in 12 African countries including Sierra Leone. Had it not been for the Ebola outbreak, this course would have been in full swing in the University of Sierra Leone,” he said.
Professor Thompson added that apart from the body of knowledge, there must be ethical standards in any profession.
In his contribution, the head of Governance Portfolio at the UNDP Programme, Edward Kamara, assured the USL of the UN agency`s support to media training in the country. He highlighted the support which his institution had been rendering to the country especially in the Ebola outbreak.
(C) Politico 23/06/15
