By Hajaratu Kalokoh
Students at Fourah Bay College (FBC) have expressed concerns over the re-sit examination notice issued by the college. According to the notice that was released on Monday the examination has been slated for 21st -25th October 2019.
According to the notice, the exam is meant for students in Final Year General, Year 3 General, Year 2 Honors (Law Dept.), and Post graduate studies. It also includes students in Diploma and Certificate Programs. Students who have reference will have to pay Le150, 000 per module.
The concern for many students is the fact that grades for second semester have not been published by the FBC administration, therefore they can’t know who is supposed to take the exams.
Andrew Fofanah, a student at the Engineering Department, told Politico that the notice is unfavorable to students because grades for first semester are still outstanding and second semester grades are not yet released.
“As I am speaking to you now, second semester grades are not yet out and there are some faculties that do not even have complete first semester grades. So how will someone re-sit exams when grades are not yet out? This is my biggest concern and taking reference exams requires preparation. How will I know my grades today and take reference exams tomorrow?
“This is not proper,” he said.
Miatta Swaray, a Final Year student of Mass Communication, expressed similar sentiments.
Swarray said: “My problem is to get the amount within this short period, and also it won’t be nice to take the re-sit exams when second semester grades are not yet out.”
She added: “If the re-sit examination is conducted and we later found out that we did not get the required mark for a particular module, it will tell on our promotion to another level particularly for those in year three.”
FBC is planning to reopen college for the 2019/2020 academic year. Politico confirmed that the second semester grades are yet to be published by the college. College authorities said grades might be published as early as next week.
The Director of Media and International Relations at the University of Sierra Leone (USL), Tonya Musa explained to Politico that the purpose of the notice is to trigger action from students to register as majority of them have not registered.
“By Monday all Departmental Board of Exams should have met and should have released grades out. From there, the Examination Office will prepare transcripts for students and they will only prepare transcript for those who have registered or paid,” Musa said.
“Then students will know if they have trailer modules or not,” he added.
Musa went on to say that this examination is categorized in to two; reference exams and late exams.
“The late exams are meant for those who genuinely did not take the exams by virtue of their evidence which justify their absence to take the exams. When you have registered or pay then you will know if you have trailer (reference) or not,” he said.
In June this year the college had agreed in a Senate meeting that students should not be promoted to new classes with trailer modules. Musa said the announcement for re-sit exams before the start of the academic year is based on that decision.
© 2019 Politico Online
