{"id":27777,"date":"2011-08-13T02:14:19","date_gmt":"2011-08-13T06:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=27777"},"modified":"2011-08-13T02:14:19","modified_gmt":"2011-08-13T06:14:19","slug":"sierra-leone-university-runs-out-of-paper-for-exams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=27777","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Leone University runs out of paper for exams"},"content":{"rendered":"

University students at Sierra Leone’s respected Fourah Bay College were unable to take their final exams because of a lack of paper. \u00a0(Photo: Fourah Bay College, founded in 1827, charges students between $200 and $800 a year)<\/em><\/p>\n

The principal, Prof Thomas Yormah, told the more than 4,000 angry students on campus the exams were postponed until new stationary arrived next week.<\/p>\n

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“This is a shame to our society,”<\/strong> one student told the BBC.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In February, the college’s first semester exams were delayed by two weeks as it lacked classroom furniture.<\/p>\n

‘Embarrassed’<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Prof Yormah told the BBC there had been “some hitch” in preparing the examination booklets, but promised a commission of enquiry would get to the bottom of the matter.<\/p>\n

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“I’m very disappointed that Fourah Bay College, once the Athens of West Africa, is faced with this embarrassing situation,”<\/strong> student activist Siman-Allie Mans-Conteh said about Thursday’s exam debacle.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not have adequate resources to cater for the demands that we have for our programmes\u201d\u00a0 <\/strong>Prof Thomas Yormah<\/em> Fourah Bay College principal<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Another student felt there was no excuse for the college authorities to be so disorganised.<\/p>\n

“Students have paid their fees and we expect the management to ensure that students take their exams on time,” he said.<\/p>\n

Prof Yormah admitted the situation was embarrassing.<\/p>\n

“But you have to understand we do not have adequate resources to cater for the demands that we have for our programmes,” he said.<\/p>\n

The college – which is part of the University of Sierra Leone – complains that the fees they are allowed to charge students are very low, ranging from between $200 (\u00a3125) and $800 a year.<\/p>\n

The central government does not allow for increased fees and the subsidy it receives is paltry, the college says.<\/p>\n

The BBC’s Umaru Fofana in the capital, Freetown, says it is common to see students at the college standing outside a classroom listening in to a lecture, or lectures being held outdoors.<\/p>\n

Those who have space in the classrooms sit on benches, not chairs, he says.<\/p>\n

BBC News<\/em><\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

University students at Sierra Leone’s respected Fourah Bay College were unable to take their final exams because of a lack of paper. \u00a0(Photo: Fourah Bay […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,673,1],"tags":[1532,5492],"class_list":["post-27777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-national-news","category-uncategorized","tag-fourah-bay-college","tag-sierra-leone-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}