The Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation was last weekend at the Gaston Berger University of Saint-Louis where he noted the problems from which practically all Senegalese universities suffer. This concerns, he said, the problem of the budget, the problem of recruiting administrative, technical and service staff and teacher-researchers as well as that of the projects to be completed. It estimates the budget needed to resolve all these problems in the short term at 125 billion FCFA. But on site, Dr Abdourahmane Diouf was also welcomed by students who chanted about difficulties in accessing water, WiFi and accommodation.
It was at Gaston Berger University (UGB) in Saint-Louis that the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, Dr. Abdourahmane Diouf, concluded his tour recently begun in the country’s public universities. The aim was to diagnose the situation of these different temples of knowledge. “We met with all the components of the university because it is part of our approach to be inclusive. We listened to them,” he said before highlighting the main problems suffered by Senegalese public universities. “It emerged from this tour that all public universities in Senegal have three major common problems, namely the budget, the recruitment of teachers and the completion of construction sites. “The biggest problem is the budget, all universities in Senegal have a budget problem. We recognize this as a government because on the 2024 budget, the universities only received it for 9 months. There was an initial error that meant that we are in a year where all universities are operating at a slow pace because the budgets were not given the expected value,” said Mr. Diouf. He also recalled that the ongoing projects are 80% completed and others are ready to be received. “Most of the projects, whether the marquees, are already finished and just need to be received to be able to hold lectures that can accommodate up to 1,500 students. All the problems we have seen here are practically 80% resolved,” informed the ministerial authority, who also announced the recruitment of 1,500 teachers to solve the problem of their deficit. According to him, a budget of approximately 125 billion FCFA would be needed to resolve the problems suffered by Senegalese public universities in the short term. For their part, the students of the Gaston Berger University of Saint-Louis took advantage of the opportunity with this visit of the supervisory authority to share the many difficulties they face and which are related to the difficult access to water and Wi-Fi, the sanitation problem, the promiscuity within the social campus among others. But they are reassured by the Minister who promises to work on it.
YVES TENDENG
