By: By: Josephine Nyeweah in Kenema
Most physically challenged students at universities and other tertiary institutions across the country are inescapably dropping out of their courses due to other inescapable expenses and burdens they face at their learning institutions.
The Executive Director of Disability Inclusion Student Advocacy-Sierra Leone (DISA-SL), James Golia, who also doubles as one of the current physically challenged students at the Eastern Technical University Sierra Leone, explained to the media director in Kenema about the ugly plight of physically challenged students across the nation.
The Executive Director disclosed to the press that he set up a team, and they went round some universities and other tertiary institutions in the nation to get dialogue with their membership so that they can get the reality on the ground, with the intention of finding sustainable solutions to address their problems.
On completion of the tour, the team realized that some students have dropped out of their courses and some are on the verge of dropping out due to the mounting challenges facing them in the process of climbing the academic ladders.
At the ETU-SL in Kenema about 57 students are currently undergoing their various courses with great challenges on them, and 22 of them are female.
He pointed out that 18 physically challenged students have gone out of their programs since 2021 to date at ETU-SL, including the university at Koidu in the Kono district.
ETU-SL is hosting 57 students, 22 of whom are female, with great challenges on their parts, which include mobility, lunch, the cost of photocopying modules, course materials or modules, and other incurred expenses.
Irrespective of the numerous challenges they are facing at the moment, James Golia, on behalf of his membership across the nation, expresses appreciation and thanks to the government of Sierra Leone and partners for extending the tuition fee waiver for all physically challenged students at the various tertiary institutions across the nation, because hundreds of students have benefited and more are still benefiting from the scholarship scheme meant for physically challenged clients.
Golia is once again calling on the government and partners and other philanthropists in and out of the country to immediately come to their aid, starting with ETU-SL as a pilot phase, by helping them in the areas of mobility and monthly allowances to augment their material demand and other costs.
He revealed that, quoting his father, in the 70s and 80s, the Sierra Leone government used to pay allowances to students at universities across the country, which most older relatives went through and are meaningfully placed in society.
He called on the current students to remain determined and focus on their courses in the academic field to achieve their target at the learning institutions.
He appealed to all and sundry to give the highest attention to the issue of disability, adding that every living thing is a potential candidate for disability at one point in his or her lifetime.
