News Story

FREETOWN: NEW PEOPLE CORRESPONDENT: Reports from Port Loko Teachers College speak of festering grievances about the failure of the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC government) to honor its commitment to supporting quality tertiary education, and continuing to provide rudimentary facilities for the students enrolled in that institution and in the town. Reflecting on the laudable steps that the former SLPP government undertook in restoring healthcare and potable water supplies in the town after the brutal destruction of facilities by AFRC-RUF rebels (some of whom are now bodyguard to President Ernest Bai Koroma), residents of the town and the students in particular are now expressing discontent.

The situation has reached such a significant point that the APC government dispatched its deputy minister of education, Mr. Algassimu Jarr, to both witness the college's inter-hall sports and also try and placate the irate students. Some students were openly dismissive of his presence saying that they had heard way too many people talk about the problem and do nothing. Anotehr student said that doing the usual cosmetic noises that announcing that the college is a polytechnic, yet doing nothing about the harsh conditions on campus is like painting a toilet with white wash when the toilet stinks as much. Another student said that they supported the APC en masse because they believed that the APC would deliver real change, but the problems they are now encountering are problems they did not encounter under the SLPP. She said that the APC's problem is that they talk too much about everything, but do vey little.

Students and faculty members have succumbed to water borne diseases as they have been fprced to drink contaminated water from streams and unsanitary wells. There has also been a fire incident as a result of students using candles to light up their rooms. The students union president, Dauda Bangura, speaking to The New People emphasised that the environment is not condusive for serious studies and scholarship and that the govenment needs to prioritise the affairs of students at a college that voted overwhelmingly for the current APC government. He stated that he could not understand why the government would award billions of dollars to provide electricity for parts of Freetown, yet ignore the electricity needs of one of the few institutions of higher learning in the northern province. "This is how governments lose support," he surmised.

He says that he intends to engage the Education minsitry ina dialogue about current problems and issues and strssed that the college administration was also fully supportive of his studets union government's resolve to see that the electricity and water situation especially as addressed as a matter of urgency.