<\/p>\n
University of The Gambia Students\u2019 Union Minister of Information and Communications Ebrima Mbaye said the problems were disrupting lectures, tests and examinations at the Faraba Banta campus.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Transport difficulties have persisted since the University relocated from the Greater Banjul area about four years ago.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology had reportedly committed to providing 20 buses through the Gambia Transport Service Corporation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However, Mbaye said the full number of buses had never been deployed. \u201cThis has left students missing examinations, tests and, in some cases, not going to school on a particular day because the buses provided are not enough,\u201d Mbaye said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Some students remain on campus until between 20:00 and 21:00 despite lectures ending at 17:00.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Students\u2019 Union had engaged university management, the Ministry and the transport company for nearly two months before protesting. \u201cPromises were made, but nothing has been solved,\u201d Mbaye said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The campus canteen has remained closed since the semester began because the University started a bidding process for vendors shortly before students returned.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mbaye said students were spending entire days on campus without access to food. \u201cThe University went on holiday for almost three months, but instead of using that opportunity to complete the bidding process, management waited until students were about to resume,\u201d Mbaye said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Students\u2019 Union also approached the University Governing Council, which instructed Vice-Chancellor Professor Herbert Robinson to address student welfare concerns.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mbaye accused management of failing to act despite the Governing Council\u2019s intervention.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Union has submitted petitions to the University and the Ministry demanding immediate improvements to transport, water and food services.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Students have given the University one week to provide reliable internet access free of charge. Deadlines were also set for improvements to toilets and lecture rooms used by the School of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences in Banjul.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Students\u2019 Union plans to inspect the campus and announce further action if the demands are not met.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have engaged in dialogue,\u201d Mbaye said. \u201cIf the demands are not met, we will communicate our next course of action to students.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":33799,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-49475","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"University of The Gambia students have protested over inadequate transport, drinking-water shortages, unreliable internet and the closure of the campus canteen.","published_date":"","news_description":"University of The Gambia students have protested over inadequate transport, drinking-water shortages, unreliable internet and the closure of the campus canteen.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49477,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49475\/revisions\/49477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=49475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}