Lecturers’ Strike May Provoke Student Unrest

Concord Times (Freetown)

Alusine Sesay

27 June 2011

Freetown — Fears have been expressed by some students and authorities on campus that the sit-down strike action by lecturers of Fourah Bay College (FBC), University of Sierra Leone, if allowed to drag on, may provoke a student riot as there appears to be no end to the seeming standoff between the Academic Staff Association (ASA) and the Ministry of Education/FBC administration.

The strike action, now entering its third week, is becoming unbearable to students who had paid their fees to the college administration but getting no lectures at the moment despite exams just around the corner, according to information emanating from the FBC campus.

Debate among students on the unending impasse is said to be reaching feverish heights as nobody could tell when a compromise would be reached to allow normalcy to once again return to the campus. The situation is not helped by the fact that other departments like Engineering and Economics are taking full lectures while students from other faculties idle all day long without any sight of their lecturers.

ASA are demanding salary increment and a general review of the conditions of service of lecturers and the demands were backed by a twenty-one day ultimatum to the college administration, starting Friday 20th May 2011. The lecturers had threatened to withhold their services until their demands were fully met.

ASA chairman Charles Sylver said lecturers at FBC are working under very poor salary and conditions of service and “this is why we are demanding an immediate reverse of such a trend”. He insisted that they would be left with no option other than staging a sit-down strike action, which is now entering its week.

As the examinations time table is already up, most students are worried as to whether the second semester lectures would be completed ahead of the fast-approaching end-of-year exams. The students are calling on the government and the university authorities to work out a speedy solution to the stalemate or it will provoke a serious student backlash.

Mohamed Sandi, a first year student in the Faculty of Social Sciences, Peace and Conflict Studies Department, stated that the strike is seriously affecting their courses. He said they have paid their fees but no lectures are currently going on.

“Worst of all, most of us are yet to set eyes on some of our first semester grades. As one can sense the situation on campus, things will soon go out of hands if this issue is allowed to drag on and on without a resolution of it,” said Sandi.

“Some lecturers have deliberately denied us the right to see our grades. We are tired of this situation and we want the government to act swiftly to avoid a potential student unrest.”

A second year student in the Political Science Department, Salamatu Mansaray, also expressed a similar concern and urged the college authorities to postpone the second semester examinations, for which the time table has already been posted on the college’s notice board.

According to her, a lot of topics still need to be covered by the students and that taking the exams as scheduled would leave most of them vulnerable.

“A good number of lecturers are yet to conclude their second semester schedule, even the continuous assessment tests are yet to be conducted,” Mansaray indicated.

“Our right to education is seriously being violated and government should intervene to find an amicable solution to the problem.”

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