By Sorie Ibrahim Fofanah
Three hundred and sixty-five applicants are set to take the faculty of Communications, Media and Information Studies at the Fourah Bay College (FBC) University of Sierra Leone’s diagnostic exam for the 2023-2024 academic year tomorrow.
Speaking in an interview with Politico on 11th October 2023, the Director of Public Relations, Alumni and International Affairs for the University of Sierra Leone (USL), James Tamba Lebbie categorized the applicants that would be taking the exams in different departments, highlighting that one hundred and thirty-six (136) opted for Public Relations, whilst twenty-three (23) applied for Development Communication, one hundred and ninety 190 went for Broadcast Journalism and sixteen (16) chose Print Journalism.
The Director was quick to note that the applicants that will be taking the exams do not include the faculty’s prospective diploma applicants, adding that there would be no exam for them.
When questioned on when the university’s portal will close, he stated that the portal is open; however he could not speak on its closure.
Since the West Africa Examination Council published the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination results, a huge number of prospective applicants queued in front of Sierra Leone Commercial Bank (SLCB) in bid to buy university application pincodes for admission into USL.
In an interview with Politico, some applicants expressed dissatisfaction over the process. One of them who introduced herself as Kadiatu said “As you can see it is very challenging to buy form because the population is too much’’ and that the process was slow.
Kadiatu said she had been at the bank since 8 o’clock in the morning, but that she had been in the queue for hours until it started raining. ‘’We have been told that the selling of application pincodes has been extended till Friday,’’ she maintained.
Explaining her experience, Elizabeth Conteh said buying application pincodes was difficult, and explained that the number of personnel selling them at the bank were few and cannot contain the number of prospective applicants.
“Definitely, the process is slow because those working inside the bank are not many,’’ Conteh noted, adding that there were other customers who were there to either cash-in or cash-out, hence contributing to slowing down the process.
“Yesterday I was here but I was unable to purchase my form because of the crowd. I decided to go home and come again today. I bought my form today as I was here by 8:30 a.m.’’ said Solomon K. Cee.
Yusif Koroma stated there was a delay in buying application pincodes at SLCB, saying’ the queue is moving at a slow pace.’ He said he had been in the queue for more than 30 minutes.
The application portal had been opened since June for the 2023-2024 academic year. The encouraging and just published West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results have been met with the high demands for prospective applicants who rushed to buy the application pincodes at the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank, for fear of what was supposed to be the closing date at the time Politico interviewed some of them.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (13/10/23)
