By Abass Jalloh
The government of Sierra Leone has agreed to pay fees for government sponsored students enrolled at the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology but only if the institution can account for the number of students they claim to have.
Minister of Technical and Higher Education, Prof. Aiah Gbakima, said on Thursday information at the disposal of the government showed that the university has not been able to account for the number of students they claimed to have.
Prof. Gbakima made this statement while addressing journalists at the Ministry of Information and Communication’s weekly press briefing. He said the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice said the university claimed that the government owed t them for 1, 200 students, while they could only account for 1,032 students.
According to the Minister, the outstanding fees for the students who have not been accounted for could cost the government $324,000.
“Until they answer to that money, we cannot pay for any backlog,” he said.
He then added: “The point is, it was a bad deal. And a bad deal is a bad deal. We cannot continue a bad deal for any reason.”
According to Prof. Gbakima, even after they will have addressed the discrepancies in the student list, the government is ongoing to pay for the current two cohorts (batches) of students that are already enrolled in the university, noting that they will not continue to pay for private students.
“We are no longer willing to pay US$3000 for a degree programme or US$2, 500 for diploma. It is a private institution. We should not be paying or giving grants for students in private institutions,” the Minister 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, is fraudulent and not in the interest of the country.
This has led the Bio administration to the 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 provide by the government.
The issue was also the subject of an investigation by Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) earlier this year.
According to the students in an earlier press statement, a copy of which was presented to Politico, the situation has become frustrating for them and is having psychological effects on them as they continue to stay at home without taking classes.
“Sadly, due to this endless impasse, halt in classes and mockery, a handful of our compatriots have given up the ghost. Some have been psychologically frustrated and traumatized. Such a situation is now too unbearable. Painfully for us, our Sierra Leonean counterparts in other universities and colleges are on their studies while we are at home dying with frustration, stress and trauma seeing our colleagues progressing whiles we are sharply retrogressing with no sign of hope,” that statement read in part.
But the government’s latest position now leaves the ball in the court of the university authorities.
A spokesman for the university wouldn’t comment when contacted by Politico, saying that he wasn’t prepared to do so.
But they promised to talk to us in a scheduled interview.
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