President Barrow pledges support to university students

His Excellency President Adama Barrow has pledged to support the University of The Gambia Medical Students Association (UNIGAMSA), with more than three hundred chairs, during a courtesy visit to the President at the State House in Banjul.

The President also pledged to assist with logistics in supporting this year’s UNIGAMSA Week.

During the visit, the President of UNIGAMSA, John George Johnson, highlighted several issues regarding the students’ conditions, including the need for school buses to ease transportation for the majority of medical students who come from the Kombos. Other challenges mentioned were medical electives, which determine where students want to specialize, and dormitories. Mr. Johnson, the student leader, also expressed concern about the high cost of dormitory rentals.

He acknowledged the transformation of tertiary education and depicted the Barrow administration as action-oriented, proactive, and transparent. He further congratulated the President for assuming the Chairmanship of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

In his response, President Barrow said that to mitigate the challenges faced by the school, his administration is already taking action and working on building higher standard dormitories for students “The foundation stone will be laid soon,” he added.

The President also revealed that the government will soon receive another batch of buses and promised to work with GTSC to ease the burden of transportation on the students. He reassured the students of his continued support, describing UNIGAMSA as a vital sector in job creation and self-employment.

According to President Barrow, there is a need to better invest and remodel tertiary institutions, to achieve the purpose for which they were established, most especially in the health and medical fields.

He urged students to embrace discipline for academic excellence, emphasising its empowering effect on educational achievement.

The Minister for Higher Education, Honourable, Pierre Gomez, said despite budget constraints, the President instructed the Ministry for the mobilization of resources for the school of medicine “not just structure but state of the art laboratory and furniture, costing millions of dollars for the school alone,” he noted.