The Faculty and Staff Association of the University of The Gambia has suspended its sit-down strike after a seven-hour meeting on Saturday. The association got strike over poor working environment at the university including D150 million pay from the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology.
In a statement, the association of the staff said the staff has decided to end the sit-down strike and “give chance to students to start their exams, the meeting unanimously agreed on some of the below resolution, attached to timeline for implementation”.
It came after over seven hours of engagement with all the stakeholders of the University of The Gambia – MOHERST, Governing Council, Office of the President, Student Union, and Chairman of the National Assembly Select Committee for Education.
According to the association, some of their demands have been met including the dissolution of the Interim Governing Council within three weeks and replace with a substantive new member and with a chairman, as per dictate of the Tertiary and Higher Education Act 2016, on or before 19th July, 2021.
The stakeholders have also agreed for a new Joint Search Council and Senate Committee in line with the Byelaws of the University of The Gambia 1999. MOHERST will also lift the ban on the UTG from running their engineering programs on or before 19th July, 2021.
Elsewhere, the Secretary-General and Head of the Civil Service instructed UTG to augment all allowances of the striving low scholarship allowance and match the amount with the UTG Training and Development policy. The Registrar will also officially handover overseeing both the Directorate of HR and Records and correspondence of the University of The Gambia back to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration and Finance).