“INDECENT” DRESS PATTERN AT FBC: AFTER THE PRESS RELEASE
Whichever way we look at this the authorities at Fourah Bay College have set themselves an almost impossible task. In general, they appear to have grown increasingly fed up with the dress patterns of mainly young female students on their campus. A statement put out by the warden’s office essentially announced a ban on certain types of clothing put on by the young women because it leaves nothing to the imagination of onlookers. The statement talks about female students exposing the ‘private parts’ of their bodies.
The point is, whether at Fourah Bay College or in the center of town, dress patterns among young people today have gone a bit too crazy for the comfort of many. Society understands that things have moved on significantly as a result of travel and interaction with other cultures and lifestyles but it would appear as if students on FBC campus have pushed things a bit too far and the authorities now want to take action and remind mostly female students that they should return to their roots and stop exposing their ‘private parts’ for the prying eyes of all.
The warden of students at FBC is under no illusion about the enormity of the task facing him if he tried to take action against students that would dismiss his orders and carry on as usual. A section of the student body is definitely going to oppose the measures against ‘indecent’ dress patterns and before long, the official outrage would subside and the feast would continue.
Maybe, the authorities at FBC should reconsider the old tactic of deploying staff at the bus terminal on campus to send defaulting students home as happened in the past. That tactic failed because it was crude.
We believe that the best way to handle this is to ask all lecturers to encourage their students to look decent in class as a first step. The lecturers are closer to the students than the warden and the truth is they are more likely to respect the lecturers more than the warden. It’s a real shame but that’s the fact.
There should be no immediate urge to produce the desired results. It’s a gradual process to turn things around.
STOP DEPOSITING BUILDING MATERIALS ON OUR STREETS
This is now a common practice that must stop. Not too long ago we read a press release from the Sierra Leone Roads Authority warning against the habit of people building houses using our roads as stores from sand and stones. It’s not as if they would pour the items on the roads for a few hours and then clear the road again. Sometimes it lasts for weeks, even months and during that period vehicular and pedestrian movement is badly disrupted.
Those who are in this habit know very well that they are infringing on the rights of other Sierra Leoneans but they just don’t care. This is something that must stop immediately. It’s happening in many places so both the smiling Tik Tok Mayor and the SLRA cannot tell us this is news to them. In fact why would SLRA issue a press statement about something they know nothing about?
We are living in a city where some people think they can do anything. This is a country where politicians like the Tik Tok Mayor believe they should first consider politics before the welfare of the good people of Sierra Leone. To issue a press release and not back it up with action is to tell the subjects of your statement to always ignore you because you are not serious about anything.
POOR SIERRA LEONEANS PAY EDSA BILLS FOR RICH ONES
Many ordinary Sierra Leoneans should be very offended by what the EDSA boss and his people have discovered from their recent tour of our provincial capitals. They discovered that big businesses that make a lot of money every week are neck deep in the corrupt practice of what EDSA calls illegal abstraction of electricity. In other words, they are stealing electricity from the national grid. In a number of cases EDSA people had to disconnect supply to those establishments, causing serious embarrassment to their management and customers.
We are living in a country where people like complaining about the inadequacy of services, particularly electricity. Where electricity is available, it is so expensive that ordinary people can only afford to keep the lights on for a few hours a day. Meanwhile those with a high rate of consumption – like hotels, guest houses, bars and restaurants are busy doing illegal abstraction and to keep them on, EDSA raises tariffs and collects every penny from ordinary people. This world is unfair!
We are waiting for EDSA to explain how this game is played. Meanwhile we have some ideas they may find useful.
1. Most of those illegal connections are done by current or former EDSA workers. Ordinary folks like us will never climb any pole to steal electricity.
2. We want UNCLE JOE LAHAI to think about the possibility of some administrative and technical big people in his institution working with these big establishments to steal electricity. Let your investigation be comprehensive. In other words, follow the evidence.
3. Please tell the nation how much money EDSA has lost during the period and what you intend doing about it. We are sure EDSA has no business going to the government daily asking for subvention. They can also deal with this quarterly threat about Karpower shutting down.
WHAT’S THE LATEST WITH THE EXAMINATION FOR TEACHERS?
We were told the other day that our teachers in this country would have to take an exam and pass it so that they would be eligible to be licensed to continue in the job. We also read from social media that the teachers were resisting the idea and the powerful SLTU was also not impressed. At this stage we want to know how the whole thing is going right now. In one report we read, dates had been set for the exams to take place in some parts of the provinces as a first step. Did it really happen?
We are not the only people asking these questions because anything concerning people as important as our teachers is a matter of grave concern to us. So the Teaching Service Commission would do really well to tell us what’s going on.
For now we can only say what we think the TSC wanted to achieve with those exams and why our teachers put up some resistance.
1. Maybe TSC has reached a conclusion that some of our teachers are in the same category as some of our players in the national football team, Leone Stars. They are there to make up the numbers and we shouldn’t expect to win anything.
2. Maybe the TSC knows that they can easily do away with low grade guys by simply threatening to set an exam. Those guys would withdraw from the classroom immediately because they don’t want to be examined. The whole exam thing could lead to a considerable loss of prestige for teachers who end up failing. We can understand that easily.
3. Is exam the only method by which TSC can assess and license teachers? How can we tell that the process will not end up like those fantastic performances in mathematics at WASSCE?
Copyright © 2024 Politico (16/02/24)
