By Francis H. Murray
The government of Sierra Leone has assured the management and students of the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology that it would pay tuition fees for all government sponsored students.
The Minister of Technical and Higher Education, Professor Aiah Gbakima, said the government had reached an agreement with the management of the university to allow students to register and to continue their courses.
The Minister made this disclosure to officials of the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone (HRCSL), during a monitoring visit to the Ministry on Monday 10th February.
The development comes amidst concerns among students of the university who are under government scholarship that they had been abandoned. Last month the concerned students took the streets over delay in payment of their fees, which forced the university to prevent them from registering or staking lectures.
Limkokwing is a privately managed university, part of the Malasia headquartered international university with campuses in several countries.
Patricia Narsu Ndanemam, Chairperson of HRCSL, told Prof. Gbakima that their visit was part of a routine monitoring and complaints activities and that they chose the ministry in light of concerns raised by the government sponsored students of Limkokwing University. She noted that the situation in the university had also affected disable students who felt they were been denied their right to access education as enshrined in the Disability Act.
The Education Minister was quoted saying that an agreement had been reached with the university administration to allow the students to register and continue their courses.
“We have decided to engage them and have looked at the MoU and we agreed on a payment plan of five billion (Le5billion) monthly, starting from August last year to now,” the Minister said, adding that the government would not cater for new students.
“We will continue to support the continuing students but not the new ones. We have told the university administration to allow the students to register and take classes. This is a government that is not running away,” he assured, adding that the university was a private institution that never went through Parliament or Cabinet.
The Minister noted that government caters for about 1, 200 students and pays $3,000 for degree programs and $2,500 for diploma courses per student.
On the issue of disable students, Prof. Gbakima said the Disability Act was quite clear.
“The Disability Act says that they should go to school free. So there are no grants-in-aid for them. I have instructed the Permanent Secretary to write a letter to all institutions quoting the relevant sections and also attaching the Disability Act,” he stated.
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