Since June, Eladia Sambou Samb has struggled to follow classes broadcast remotely on Zoom or Google Meet in her small town of Koungheul, more than 300 km from Dakar. “It’s complicated to concentrate in the family home, where there are always people and obligations. And it’s even more difficult during the rainy season, when the downpours create power outages and knock out my Internet connection,” says the third-year student at the Higher School of Applied Economics, attached to the Cheikh-Anta-Diop University of Dakar (UCAD).
Like around 80,000 students, he had to leave campus on June 2, the day after opponent Ousmane Sonko was sentenced to two years in prison for “corruption of youth”. The scene of clashes, the university saw its buildings burnt down. The academic council then decided that teaching would be done online in mid-June. The universities of Assane-Seck, in Ziguinchor, and Gaston-Berger, in Saint-Louis, had also closed their doors following the unrest. But if they are to reopen on Monday October 9, the future of UCAD students is still uncertain. An academic council meets Friday to “assess the situation” to determine whether classes will resume on campus.
For three months, resourcefulness and solidarity have been essential between teachers and students. The lessons were posted online by the teachers on an Internet platform. The UCAD Friendly Collective, a student representative body, also distributed more than 1,500 USB keys containing the courses, as well as handouts, throughout Senegal in order to reach students who do not have access to the Internet . “We distributed the USB keys free of charge to the local representatives of the associations, then the students came with their computers to copy the documents that concerned them. Those who are not equipped could take the handouts,” explains Modou Diagne, president of the Students’ Association of the Faculty of Legal and Political Sciences of UCAD.
” Punishment “
Birane Cissé, a 25-year-old modern literature student, admits to not having often opened his computer to follow his lessons in recent months. “We boycotted classes because not all students had equal access to online resources,” says the young man who lives in Guédiawaye, a suburb of Dakar. Even though it’s frustrating not to study, I took the opportunity to do a little business. »
“We cannot inflict punishment on all students who want to work because a minority of them broke a few buildings on campus,” argues David Célestin Faye, general secretary of the Autonomous Union of Higher Education (SAES). ), which demands that the next presidential election, scheduled for February 2024, not affect university life. “We were already behind schedule due to the closure of UCAD in June 2022, before the legislative elections. Politicians must leave the university alone,” says the computer science teacher.
In fact, David Célestin Faye explains that distance learning has not worked well since June. “We pretended to do the courses online, but that can’t be improvised. Especially since we have fallen behind on practical work, which cannot be done remotely,” he explains. In a press release, the union demands the “immediate reopening of all public universities for a resumption of face-to-face teaching and the security of people and property within universities and schools”.
Modou Diagne pleads for a “complete reopening” of the university from October 9. “We are worried because half of UCAD’s students come from inside the country,” he says. If classes resume but the social campus is not reopened, where will they stay? Most of them cannot afford to rent an apartment in Dakar. »
