Students of Early Child Development (ECD) class at the School of Education at The Gambia College on Thursday, 8 August, 2019 protested in disapproval of a decision school administrator’s made by increasing the tuition fee from D7,000 to D10,000 in an academic year.

This information came to light through the school’s registrar at an orientation with new students. It was a decision made by college’s administrative council.

Kebba Yusuf Suso an ECD Diploma 2 student told The Point that this decision came as a surprise. “We were informed of the school’s decision by the college registrar recently during an orientation session they had with new students,” he said.

“So this has really come as a surprise to us as students who are on their diploma levels with only few years to finish the college. We are not going to adhere until everything is clear to us because what we were told by the same registrar when we were coming to the college was different.”

According to him, they were to pay D21, 000 for three years and not the contrary. “And what they said is that the decision is a directive, directive from where? That is what we wanted to know as students,” he concluded.

Omar Njie, an ECD year 2 student said the decision of the college administration to increase the tuition fee from D7,000 to D10,000 dalasi for every academic year is really frustrating, pointing out that the financial background of most of the students at the college is very weak. He said that provisions for their daily college learning materials is even a problem for most students much more tuition increment.

“We really find it hard as students to even have enough furniture in our classroom and we are paying our tuition fees every year. So we are only paying our monies for nothing? He inquires.

Our efforts to hear from the school’s administrators proved futile as no college senior administrator was present for comments.

Author: Yusupha Jobe