Salone students “suffering” in China

Over 100 Sierra Leonean students studying in China are living under reduced circumstances, according to the President of the Sierra Leone Students’ Union in China.
Philip Monyah told this press in Beijing that “conditions are not too good” for the 107 of them and that they were “suffering”. He said only 53 of them were receiving subsidiary allowance from the Government of Sierra Leone. Even those who do get only $ 60 (sixty) a month, something the students’ union leader says cannot even pay their utility bills. “we are not allowed to work here to augment whatever we receive from our home and host governments as that is against the terms of our being here”, he said.
Philip said other African countries such as Liberia and even Ghana were receiving between $200 and $500 a month from their home governments in addition to the between $ 200 and $290 the Chinese Government gives to all overseas students who are there at their behest. Investigations carried out by this press reveal that the Botswana Government pays $ 1,000 monthly to all of its citizens studying in China regardless of how they went there.
While praising the Chinese Government for their assistance saying he understood with the impact of the current global financial crisis, Monyah appealed to the Government of Sierra Leone to increase the allowance given to them. He also appealed for all Sierra Leoneans studying in China to be included in the list of beneficiaries of the subsidiary allowance. The lack of this, he went on, had bred disgruntlement among their ranks as some saw themselves as second class citizens.
The Chinese Government gives scholarships to Sierra Leoneans to do undergraduate and post-graduate courses in Beijing and other cities across the Asian country. Those directly nominated by the Ministry of Education are put on the subsidiary allowance by the Government of Sierra Leone while those nominated directly by the Chinese embassy, even if through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, do not get any such allowance.
Philip Monyah said he had discussed with President Ernest Bai Koroma and the Sierra Leone embassy in Beijing to address the situation but that the plight of the students was still ongoing. Minister of Education, Dr Minkailu Bah, could not be reached for his reaction despite several efforts made to get him.