The first batch of students at Gambia College annex in Basse who were promised free accommodation, scholarship, and allowance are complaining that the promises were not kept. 

The batch of students pursuing Advanced Diploma Primary and Diploma programme were relocated to the school on January 6, 2020.

The students complained that they paid D350 for rent (per bed) for the month of February 2020 for an accommodation that was purposely built for them.

Ebrima Nyabally, Accommodation minister at Basse Campus said: “the hostel/dormitory at the campus was built and supervised by a private individual not the college administration.”

“We were informed by the college authorities that the dormitory was constructed by a private individual and was not part of the contract funded by the MRC Holland Foundation and as a result of that the dormitories will be a private residence for the students at Basse campus,” he added.

Mariama Cham, an Advanced Diploma Primary student, said: “the rooms at the dormitory can lodge up to four students in which each is expected to pay the (D350) per month.”

She called on the college authorities to intervene as soon as possible and help them looked at the cost of the rent and see how best it can be made affordable for them.

Babucarr Ceesay, Education minister at the Basse Campus said they are not happy with the part-time lecturers who are not living with them. He said they will prefer to have full time lecturers who will stay with the students.

He however appealed to the lecturers who originated from rural Gambia “to go back to support, serve and contribute to the development of their own people”.

However, Madam Fofana the Coordinator for the Basse Campus said: “the dormitory is not under the college administration but a private individual that’s why student are charged (D350) per month.”

She said “(I don’t) know anything and cannot say anything with regards to the funding of the dormitory project situated on the land of the Gambia college in Basse.”

Reporting by Adama Makasuba