By Mustapha Sesay
Students of polytechnics and teacher training colleges across the country went to campus yesterday just to be told to “go home”. Their lecturers have started an indefinite sit-down strike which, they say, they are in no hurry to call off until their demands are met, according to their Vice President, Mohamed Shaw.
Thousands of students are affected especially coming as it does at a time when they are either writing their exams or are preparing to do so in the coming days.
“On 8 March this year we suspended our strike over a long-running review of our pay and conditions, after receiving what are now false assurances from the minister of education that our grievances would be addressed”, Shaw told Politico. He said they had had to resume their strike “and there is now no turning back until our demands are met”.
He said their conditions had gone nine years without a review, and considering the current high cost of living and the runaway inflation that has happened over the years they could no longer live with their means. “Our take-home pay can no longer take us home” said a lecturer of one of the affected colleges, preferring anonymity.
In a press release, signed by the National President of the striking institutions, Raymond Musa and their Secretary General Amadu WJ Sesay, they say they decided to revoke the suspension of their strike action in March because of the “delay in the implementation of the 2016 to 2018 conditions of service” agreed to in their negotiations with the minister of education. The release does not say what exactly these conditions were.
They also say there’s a “growing concern and anxiety over the delay of salaries which continues to demotivate workers”.
Hassan Barry is a third year student of Eastern Polytechnic in Kenema said all lectures rooms were shut. He told Politico that they were told by the academic staff to leave the campus before noon on Monday. He was among the last set of students to do so.
He said the sit-down strike would adversely affect them because they were very close to exams and that there had already been a lot of disruption to the educational system in that part of the country partly owing to the Ebola outbreak and that the current strike was adding salt to injury.
He appealed to the authorities to play their part to salvage the situation before things got out of hand.
“We want to avoid chaos so we are waiting on our students’ union leadership as they have told us to be patient while they engage the Resident Minister and education authorities,” Barry said, adding: “so we are waiting for them”. He said they would return to campus today to check on the situation.
The situation at Freetown Teachers’ College (FTC) in the east of Freetown was no different from. Magritte Fayia, a second year student said they met all lecture rooms closed when they went for lectures yesterday morning. She said their exams were due next week and that they still needed the attention of their lecturers before then. She noted that if the strike action continued, it would obviously affect them.
“I was not even aware of the strike action until I reached campus this morning, but my colleagues told me they heard about it over the weekend” she said, adding: “I just hope it ends soon”
At Milton Margai College of Education and Technology Congo Cross campus, they was no student on campus when Politico visited. Only two lecturers were in the vast staffroom who were apparently engaged in a private chat. They told Politico that they were “aggrieved lecturers” and that they were not on campus because they wanted to teach, but rather because they had other things to attend to. They vowed not to return to class until their demands were met.
One of the lecturers who was not willing to give his name said their situation was being completely neglected by government and that it pointed to the fact that “education in the country is also being neglected”.
When asked whether he was aware of the current economic setback the country was faced with, he responded thus:“if they can afford to give Le 63 million to each parliamentarian why can they not meet the very basic demands of lecturers”. His colleague echoed in a low tone “they will not tell us there is no money in the country except that they want to keep it for their political campaign”.
(C) Politico 21/06/16
