By Amin Kef Sesay
Opposition APC Leader in Parliament, Hon. Chernor Bah aka Chericoco has persuasively called on the Speaker of Parliament to authorize for a stakeholders engagement to be held by the Chairman of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Tertiary Education.
He was speaking in Parliament under SO 23 and called on the Speaker of Parliament to intercede on behalf of University students who have been asked to pay their full tuition fees for the 2019/2020 academic year before they are allowed to register in the University.
Hon. Chernor Bah pleaded with the University authorities to revisit their stance on the full payment of tuition fees before students are allowed to register. He noted that majority of the students rely on either their friends or relatives to pay their tuition fees for them because their parents cannot afford the one-off payment in full.
Speaker of the House, Hon. Dr. Abass Bundu was quick to respond to the request, by asking the Chairman of the Committee, SLPP Member of Parliament from Bo district, Hon. A.O. Kamara to step up and summon a relevant stakeholders meeting in order to address the concern raised by Hon. Chernor Bah.
Some ruling and opposition party MPs have joined Hon. Chernor Bah to plead with the University authorities to allow students to pay their tuition fees in tranches or by instalments. Hon. Chernor Bah said he spoke not as a politician but as a family man himself.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the University of Sierra Leone told journalists that the Government had given directives that tuition fees should not be increased and the University Management strictly abides by that directive.
