By Amin Kef Sesay
Currently, lecturers of various Universities in the country are on strike action bordering on their demand for salary increases in order to match up with the high cost of living.
During various media engagements, the President of the Academic Staff Association, Fourah Bay College (FBC), Dr. Williette James highlighted serious and critical welfare concerns that have been hampering the growth of the University for several decades.
It could also be recalled that on Tuesday January 19, 2021, heads and lecturers from the various higher and technical public education institutions across Sierra Leone converged at Fourah Bay College (FBC) on the invitation of the Vice President, Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, amidst a strike action that has left the universities and technical institutions shut down.
Following a day-long dialogue, the protesting lecturers representatives agreed to summon a meeting of their general membership to discuss and consider the fruitful resolutions that emanated from the engagement.
As all these are going on, one of the most formidable Civil Society Organizations in the country, the Campaign for Human Rights and Development International (CHRDI) has added its voice to the impasse between the Government and the Academic Staff Associations of the various protesting tertiary institutions.
CHRDI states that after several years of unresolved disputes between the University administration, Academic Staff Association (ASA) and the central Government, lectures have been brought to a standstill for several months now.
It furthered that with the perennially unsuitable learning conditions, University students in Sierra Leone are at risk of dropping out of University and missing out on their education.
Campaign for Human Rights and Development International (CHRDI), it added, believes that Education is a vehicle for empowerment.
“Education can give marginalised adults and children the means to escape from poverty and participate meaningfully in their societies and is vital to empowering women, to safeguarding children from exploitation and hazardous labour, to the promotion of human rights and democracy and to the protection of the environment,” the organization maintained.
CHARDI concluded by urging the Government of Sierra Leone and the Academic Staff Association (ASA) to quickly respond to the concerns of the students averring that we have a generation to nurture and prepare for the future.
