University of Liberia students march for the reopening of campus
Students took to the streets of Monrovia calling for the resumption of academic activities.
Students of the University of Liberia took to the streets of Monrovia on Tuesday, calling for the immediate reopening of the institution and the resumption of academic activities.
The University of Liberia is the country's principal public higher education institution, which gives a closure national rather than institutional consequences. For most Liberian students, there is no comparable alternative to transfer to, and private options are beyond the means of the majority.
The cost of an interruption compounds in a way that a simple count of lost weeks understates. Academic calendars are sequenced, so a suspended semester displaces the next intake, and cohorts accumulate behind one another. Graduating classes reach the labour market late, and students on scholarships or with family support calibrated to a fixed duration can find that funding exhausted before completion.
Students of the University of Liberia took to the streets of Monrovia on Tuesday, calling for the immediate reopening of the institution and the resumption of academic activities.
Street protest as the chosen instrument reflects the absence of faster remedies. Where the decision to suspend teaching rests with authorities outside the university and no timetable has been published, students have limited procedural means to compel a date.
The episode sits alongside reported growth of 5.1 per cent in the national economy, a juxtaposition that illustrates how aggregate performance and the functioning of public institutions can move independently of one another.
Based on reporting by AllAfrica.
