By: Nyima Silah
The Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (MoHERST) has allocated five extra buses to the University of The Gambia (UTG) afterdozens of students missed class on Monday and subsequently stranded after classes.
This disclosure of made by the President of the UTG student union Kemo Conteh on Tuesday.
He confirmed that a substantial number of students missed out on their lectures on Monday morning while others were stranded at Faraba after classes due to theinadequacy of buses, describing the situation as unfortunate and frustrating.
“I have contacted the Minister for MoHERST and the GTSC for immediate action to be taken. This has led to the allocation of five extra buses to the existing 15 and,the stationing of three rapid response buses at Brikamato deal with the emerging transportation challenges. There has been a challenge to the entire transitional process to the Faraba campus but certainly, with commitment, we will deal with it,” the student union president disclosed to The Voice.
However, a final year journalism student at the UTG, Kaddy J. Saidy, said: “It is disappointing to wake up very early in the morning just to catch up a bus and the bus could not even pick you up from your location due to the fact that it is full to its capacity, meaning you are going to miss your classes. I am even thinking of deferring or dropping courses that I am supposed to have in Faraba this semester until next semester because I cannot afford to miss classes.”
Ms. Saidy stressed that the semester has been disrupted already, adding that they resumed in October when they were expected to resume last month. She bemoaned that a week had already gone into the semester whilst some could not even start their lectures.
She suggested the Student Union engage the university authorities to tell the students the realities on the ground.
“
According to her, the authorities don’t even know the statistics of students that are going to Faraba to attend courses, adding if the number is higher than the buses it’s obviously going to be a problem and students are going to miss their classes.
Meanwhile, another student, who wants to remain anonymous, stated that the situation on Monday was discouraging as the students were in Faraba until 10:00 p.m. Commenting on the same issue, another student said she deferred her course to next semester due to several issues regarding their relocation.