July 13, 2021
By Mohamed Jalloh
The Chief Minister, Jacob Jusu Saffa has held a fruitful engagement with officials of the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education(MTHE) as part of his familiarization tour of different ministries in his new role and official capacity as Chief Minister.
According to the Chief Minister, the aim of the visit is to identify the challenges in the ministry and to facilitate the implementation of solutions, which forms his core mandate as a Chief Minister.
Jacob Jusu Saffa urged officials of the Ministry of Tertiary and Higher Education to ensure the adoption of a specialized educational system which should be reflective in the traditional and advance programs.
The Chief Minister explained about the fourth industrial revolution which is currently underway and further prevailed upon the MTHE to offer traditional programmes that would provide specialists who would be pioneers of the fourth industrial revolution.
“This is the most appropriate time for our Universities to specialize especially with the enactment of the new University Act. The Agricultural Engineering Department at Njala University must be brought to speed to function and serve society,” he noted.
Hon JJ Saffa admonished the Minister to pay special consideration to the NCTVA, TVET exams, and to further adopt prudent financial management systems at the Universities so as to administer the universities in line with a sound and healthy financial administration.
“Our Universities must return to the TSA system and should each develop business models since they are income generating entities,” he implored.
Responding, the Minister of Technical and Higher Education Prof Alpha Wurie cherished the visit by the Chief Minister which he described as unprecedented especially with his decade and more years as a Minister of Government.
Hon Prof Alpha Wurie on behalf of his Ministry extended their appreciation to His Excellency through the Chief Minister for the support they continue to receive as a new Ministry.
On the fundamental issues raised by the Chief Minister, Prof Wurie outlined the challenges the universities.
According to Prof. Wurie the challenges include the inconsistencies in the payment structure of lecturers of the new payroll system; the acute water problem at the FBC, Building project at IPAM, Power supply problem at the Njala University and the lack of a policy on higher education.
He gave a word of guarantee to the Chief Minister that the request for specialization by the Public Universities of Sierra Leone will form a priority on the engagement agenda with the Universities.