By Foday Moriba Conteh
It was understood that students of the University of Sierra Leone will start taking lectures/classes online due to the coronavirus pandemic. Universities are about to close down due to preventive measures being put in place because of the COVID- 19. The University Administration has however, promised to start offering lectures online. The University of Sierra Leone consists of Fourah Bay College, IPAM and College of Medicine collectively.
The Management of the University of Sierra Leone asked all academic staff of the University to prepare their courses outline, lecture notes and reference materials for transmission to students through the University’s portal system. This was after a consultative meeting held with various Institutional Heads, Heads of Department, and members of the student representation body on Friday 20 March 2020 at the various colleges. The system will be operated by the ICT Directorate to organize training sessions for the effective use of real-time virtual teaching tools and techniques.
The request for the ICT Directorate to operate the system was done by the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Sierra Leone Brigadier Professor Foday Sahr. The online lectures is one of the measures the Administrations of the three constituent bodies have put in place in compliance with the joint press release from the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary School and Ministry of Technical and Higher Education that all Institutions of learning must close on the 31st March 2020.
This will be the first of such system put in place during an unforeseen break by the University of Sierra Leone. Even during the Ebola outbreak lectures came to a standstill. In May last year the university launched an electronic digital platform which is designed to provide the management of its administration.
Atleast a good effort to get the next generation informed with what is actually happening.