By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
In response to recent outcries from students of Fourah Bay College University of Sierra Leone over the decision to disallow them from taking the ongoing first semester examination, the Deputy Registrar of the constituent college has said the decision is aimed at setting the records straight.
Speaking in an interview with Politico, Registrar Brima Bah described the affected student population as ineligible to take the examination due to factors such as the failure to meet fee requirement of 50% for continuing students and 100% for first year students and 50% payment for extra charges known as Academic user fees that is not covered by the Sierra Leone Grant in Aid.
Bah explained that they have for the past two years been notifying students through public notices and meetings and other channels about the charges not covered by the SLG and the need to pay them. “We have come to terms with a good number of the students who are complying and that is about less than 20% of them. We are saying that they also should pay at least 50% of that fee to be eligible to take the first semester examination,” he said.
Bah went on to explain that the other category has to do with students who do not pass to the next class but promote themselves to the next level despite the promotional list and transcript being made available to them.
“Every academic year we put out the pass list of students who are qualified to move from one level to the other. So we have a good number of students who are not qualified, in other words they failed but will still move to the other level. That list is published at the start of the first semester already, they know their result but we still publish the pass list just to confirm and that is part of the eligibility requirement to sit in a new class and be examined in the end,” he said.
He added: “As the deputy registrar, I have put out a notice informing them that if you know you have not passed and your name is not on the circulated pass list, then you will have to repeat. But over the years, there are some students who have refused to do so. Students who have been promoting themselves are not expected to graduate even though they have references to clear from previous years.” For final year students with such problems, he said they will not graduate until they clear their references in the subsequent year.
He admitted that the college has not been robust in their checks to ensure that only promoted students and those who have met their financial obligations are allowed to take exams due to factors he did not explain but said because of the persistent problems such issues posed to the administration, they have decided to act on it accordingly.
Speaking to Politico, the President of FBC Students Union Government, Alfred M. Sesay admitted that it is part of the university regulations for students to pay their fees, adding that the government made it clear to students before issuing SLGs that they will not pay any SLG extra charges for students. So he is expecting students to abide by that since the government has now paid the bulk of the fees.
That notwithstanding, Sesay said that there are other students who are yet to pay their fees due to the fact that some parents demand a transcript from their wards before paying for the next academic year. He said the university is yet to give some students.
Speaking on illegal promotion, President Sesay pointed out that it is a laid down policy that no student is allowed to proceed to the final year with a trailer. But he said he had engaged the University administration to see how they can temper justice with mercy for the law to take effect next year. He confirmed that most of the students involved in the trailer saga are from the school of Communication.
One of the affected final year students from the Mass Communication programme told Politico that it is vividly written on the transcript that a student should not proceed to the next stage with 3 trailers. But the policy of not proceeding to final year with a single trailer is a new one which he thinks ought to take effect after their batch since they are proceeding with the Mass Communication and not the newly established Faculty of Information and Communication studies.
He stated that students were not earlier informed of this new policy, else they would have cleared their trailers before now.
"As for me I have already cleared the single trailer that I had, just for me to be informed that I will not proceed to final year and should repeat the class until next academic year which is very unfair to me," he said.
He ended up pleading to the administration to see to their plight.
Copyright © 2024 Politico Online (08/04/24)
