Over 300 Gambia College students denied entry into classrooms

The students, on Friday were seen standing under their classroom verandas for the entire day, forcing others to go home after a decision was taken by the college administration to deny them their lessons for not paying tuition fees.  

Sulayman Bojang, a student at the Department of Agriculture, told The Point that many of the affected students come from poor family backgrounds. He said most of them find it difficult to afford 10,000 dalasis  a year tuition fee, stating that the issue of denying them entry into classrooms has been ongoing for a week.

“We were denied to enter our classrooms for hours now and this has started since last week. You can see how frustrating the affected students are right now. I can say many students in all the departments of the college are currently facing the tuition fee problem and are denied to take their exams.”

“This should not be the period of denying students to have classes. We all know how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected many of our financial avenues as families. I am afraid that some of the students might not even be able to settle half of their diploma and certificate level tuition fees which can be 12,000 dalasis for a student.”

Tamsir Sallah, member of the college students’ union, said the organisation has since been engaging the school authorities on a mechanism to allow the affected students attend classes and write their examinations.

“As a union, we have been engaging the college administration on how best to come up with strategies to allow those affected students attend their classes and sit to their exams.” However, he admitted that this also seems impossible given the timeframe, in which documents have to be signed with further explanations.

“We have since engaged the college authorities on a series of mechanisms to allow the huge number of affected students attend their lessons and sit their to exams.”

“We all know it is only those less privileged families of our societies who come to the college to receive their education, so how do you expect that person to settle his or her tuition fee as Covid-19 is still affecting economies. I am afraid some have to be at home without sitting to their exams,” he warned.

The Point’s attempts to reach the college administration for comments proved futile as access was not granted.