By Allieu Sahid Tunkara
The euphoria around the reopening of colleges and universities is conspicuous on the Fourah Bay College campus (FBC), University of Sierra Leone. Last Friday, a typical day since registration for courses commenced on April 14, students were assembled in long queues at the Finance building, shuffling their course forms to get them endorsed by officials of the Finance department to enable them register ahead of the beginning of lectures.
But by their looks, those students were full of exuberance with an unwavering anxiety to meet the tight deadline for the completion of the registration process. Some students were clearly tired as they could be seen kneeling down at intervals as though to ease up during the long wait for their turn to enter the Finance building.
Sweating profusely, a year-three student in the Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, Madieu Malik, commented that most universities had moved from the age-old system that requires students to assemble in a single location to do their registration.
“Online registration is what we want to see in a 21st century university,” he said.
Another student, who spoke to Politico on condition of anonymity, said if FBC couldn’t get to the status of ensuring online registration, it should at least create an ideal platform in which students for every department would have a registration desk in the Finance office.
“Such arrangement saves time and energy,” the student said.
Because of these long queues and the ensuing delay they cause, many students at the college say most times they miss classes while trying to register, especially in situations where deadlines have been pronounced by university authorities.
To some people, Malik`s statement may sound like building castles in the air. But considering the world of high tech we now live in, and the unfolding trends in the information technology scene, this passionate appeal by the science student is quite in place.
The ordeal at the Finance building gets tougher later in the day, precisely at 12 midday, when officials there go out for lunch.
On that day, there was a little commotion. Some disgruntled students had managed to slip their way into the office before the doors were closed. Already even those who were in were at loggerheads with the officials. The situation in there only got worst.
Students and officials at the FBC say this experience at the Finance building is nothing new, and that it`s only the tip of the iceberg as far as the problems besetting what is West Africa`s oldest learning institution. However, both lecturers and students, wonder why successive administrations have failed to tackle them.
Hygiene and sanitation
At a restaurant called Café-Two, where students go for refreshment, Winnie Davies, a newly enrolled student in the faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, outlined some of her priority needs she wanted to see the college address quickly - the renovation of student hostels, adequate water supply, improvement in toilet facilities and the equipping of the college’s library with up-to-date learning materials, among many others.
Talking about water supply, hygiene and sanitation remains a major issue for the college and this was raised by almost every student Politico spoke to.
“Imagine a situation where a female student has cause to move from the mainstream Arts to Mass Communication building in search of toilet. Most times, water is not available,” lamented Davies.
The old and non-functioning toilet system in the Kennedy building at the heart of the college serves as a concrete evidence of this.
At the student hostel adjacent Davidson Nicol Hall, a burst pipe covered with human faeces is visible, clearly the result of neglect by authorities.
At the restaurant, outside the hall, some students were immersed in a heated debate about the damaging effect of the Ebola epidemic on the smooth running of the academic year. Their trail of thoughts in the discussion was derailed when one of the students, Ahmed Abdulai, from the Geography department, weighed in on the demands of Winnie Davies by stating that he wanted to see a conducive learning environment that’s technologically driven.
He argued that a good number of students at FBC were not computer literate, yet out of the composite charges students pay annually to the college computer fee is included.
“I pay for a computer service which I don’t enjoy,” Abdulai complained. Probably, Abdulai is one of the few students who read newspapers or listen to radio which appears to generate consciousness in him that computer literacy is a fundamental criterion in the labour requirements in the world of work. His passionate appeal for the university to go digital in the way it conducts affairs may not be divorced from this consciousness.
Open air lectures
Another student pointed out the lack of convenient sitting accommodation in classrooms, a problem FBC students are very much familiar with. This explains the multitude of open air lectures when classes are in full gear. Consequently, the Ajayi Crowther Amphitheatre where students converge every year in their academic regalia to receive their degrees and diplomas has over the years been turned in to a classroom. There have been reports that two classes have clashed there.
The problem of shortage of chairs or lack of spacious classrooms becomes a greater concern during exam situations. Students move from classroom to classroom to fetch chairs and this often creates problems for lecturers who invigilate the examination. And some unscrupulous students have exploited it to embark on exams malpractices.
On February 18, FBC commemorated its 188th anniversary. The Academic Staff Association (ASA) president singled out water shortage, among others, as one of the most acute problems confronting the college. Dr Charles Silver complained that every morning, lecturers with jerry cans in their hands compete with some neighbours nearby for water.
“We want to see the university address this problem,” he said, noting that the situation costs the lecturers valuable work period.
In 2011 the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) unveiled a programme geared towards helping out in the deficiency in the computer literacy sector of the college. That saw the establishment of the Academic Career Advisory and Counseling project. This is the only part of the college where there are computers for the student population which is estimated at around 6000, yet there are only 12 computers in the place.
The facility is used by both lecturers and students, according to the officer in charge of the Information Technology unit, Emmanuel Wesley.
Wesley however informed Politico that a new project had just been written by the head of the unit, Dr Fatmata Taqi, so that more computers were expected to be added to the available ones.
“Some computers have already been donated and they are with us and more are coming,” he said.
In spite of all these challenges, Fourah Bay College is the envy of other tertiary institutions in the country for its abundant land resource which lies untapped, even if gradually being encroached upon by nearby communities. Already a huge part of the college`s land have been illegally occupied by squatters who are busy erecting makeshift structures that give the college the look of a refugee camp.
These illegal occupants come from nowhere, yet they are everywhere on FBC land. If their actions go unchecked, they would one day claim FBC Campus as theirs.
The expectations raised by the students are valid, and the lecturers, by virtue of their expertise in their various fields, can solve most of these problems. It is only the demonstration of the strong will and commitment on the part of the management that will create the difference.
Despite the saying: ‘old is forever gold’, it is only when FBC solves these problems that can it stand tall among other academic institutions and continue to rightfully earn a respectful place in society.
This generation has come to realize that no successful institution can rely on historical chronicles but what it does now matters more.
© Politico 21/04/15
