Sahr Allieu Jawara, AYV News, September 29, 2023
Students With Disabilities have expressed concerns over the various challenges they face in public institutions of learning.
President of Students With Disabilities Sierra Leone, Gibrilla Kargbo explained to AYV News key challenges they face within various colleges and universities. He said one amongst those challenges is the inaccessibility into classrooms in higher buildings.
Mr. Kargbo said: “Many institutions do not make provision for us students with disabilities to access some of the lecture rooms and halls using our wheelchairs.
This has been one major challenge for us as physically challenged students”.
On another note, he explained how the issue of extra charges is affecting his members across various institutions even though they have grant-in-aid.
He said: “Extra charges are posing serious threats to most of us who could not afford to pay. I want to call on government to consider addressing it. This will prevent most of us from graduating, because we cannot afford to pay those monies”.
He ended on their challenge for getting fare to and from their various campuses, stating that they are most times victimised in getting public transportations.
Deputy Registrar at the Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, Brima Bah said their concerns are genuine, assuring that the University administrations are planning on putting more and better modalities in place to suit the learning comfort of the students with disabilities.
He referred to the Center for Student with Disabilities as a start of their quest in protecting the interest of students with special needs. He encouraged the students with special needs to continue being responsible and upholding the values for learning.
