By: Kemo Kanyi
The Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education has yet to settle its debt to the University of The Gambia and the situationcontinues to deny graduating MoBSE-sponsored students of the UTG education faculty of attestation papers after completing their four-year study in various fields.
Berray Sowe, secretary-general of the University of The Gambia Education Students’ Association (EDUSA), told The Voice in an interview that the graduating MoBSE-sponsored students at the University of The Gambia are been denied access to their attestations. He stated that the student leadership engaged both MoBSE and UTG so that the matter could be resolved months ago.
‘’Since August, the leadership of the 14th Executive Council of the University of The Gambia Education Students’ Association has rigorously engaged the authorities at both MoBSE and UTG to get the matter resolved, but all our efforts yielded no fruitful result,’’ he told The Voice on Wednesday.
Mr. Sowe said he had written two letters to the Permanent Secretary of MoBSE in August and September, respectively,coupled with physical meetings with the concerned authorities. ‘’Recently, EDUSA leadership has written a letter to the PS of MoBSE, which was copied to the National Assembly, the Office of the Vice President, the Ministry of Finance, and the Personal Management Office (PMO) but nothing worked well,’’ he explained, adding: ‘’Regardless of the access to attestations, the affected individuals are posted to schools by MoBSE without upgrading their statuses to graduate teachers with the associated grade points.’’
Babucarr Jobe, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, when contacted by this medium, said MoBSE has written their demands to them and “already allocations are done” in relation to the demands made.
Louise Moses Mendy, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, confirmed to The Voice that MoBSE has indeed received allocations from the Finance Ministry and his ministry is currently engaging the UTG for facilitation of the release of the papers to the graduating students.
Mr. Corr, Director of Finance at the University of The Gambia when contacted by The Voice, maintained that whenever a considerable amount of payment is done to the UTG by MoBSE, his institution will release the required papers to the graduating students.
