By Abass Jalloh
Students of the History and African Studies Department at Fourah Bay College (FBC), University of Sierra Leone (USL), reportedly left the examination hall, on Friday 3rd June 2022, alleging that the questions were unfairly set by the lecturer.
The year two (2) students at the Department of History and African Studies were to write the exam for the module called European History for the first semester, which was scheduled for 9:00 A.M.
It was reported that the students, upon seeing the questions after they were shared with them, unanimously reacted by leaving the hall and the examination materials unattended, as a form of protest.
Speaking to Politico, the FBC Students’ Union Education Minister, Alfred Sesay, confirmed the boycott, noting that the students accused the course tutor, Mr. Gobeh of having been unfair to them.
Sesay said the students have before this, made allegations against the lecturer in question of “taking money from students” and “forcing them to buy pamphlets”.
He said he had engaged the Exams authorities and that “they had agreed to reschedule the exam, although the date was not specified”.
Sesay stated the students emphasized that if they would have to take the exam, the same lecturer should not draw the questions or mark them.
Speaking to Politico, the Director of Quality Assurance at FBC, David Gbao, described the matter as a “serious issue”, saying that they would investigate. He said they wanted to establish whether the students’ allegations had any level of credence.
“If such a thing happened at all, then there are many things that can be done,” Gbao stated. “First we need to understand why this happened, whether it is an issue of resources or pedagogy training. So, that lecturer will require support if that is the case. There are so many lecturers who have been through pedagogical training,’’ he continued.
However, he said if their investigations found that the lecturer taught the students and that the students made up the story, then they also would face the penalty depending on the gravity of the situation.
The Director of Media and Communication, USL, Dr. Tonya Musa, said the issue is not for the university management but an individual issue at this stage.
He said: “If the students complain that something happened, we will take our time to respond. By our position as management, we receive complaints, forward them to the Disciplinary Committee, and they will investigate and get back to us before we take action.”
“Anything that we get as happening depends on the investigation because we will not want to do anything contrary to our regulation,” he said, noting that the regulation provides an action for such happenings.
On how they usually handle such matters, Dr. Musa explained that the first point of action will be investigating so that they would know what the situation is and who is responsible, saying ‘’who is responsible would now lead us to take punitive action”.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (06/06/22)
