Confined students demand free meals and healthcare facilities

Students confined on campus in Burkina Faso because of the COVID-19 outbreak have demanded that they should be entitled to free meals and that adequate healthcare facilities should be provided.

The lockdown, which started on 1 April, was generally being respected at the Ouagadougou campuses of Patte d’Oie, Larlé and Gounghin, reported Sidwaya of Ouagadougou.

But at Gounghin, some students were refusing to follow the measures voluntarily “because they reckon they cannot be confined without certain conditions being met”, Sidwaya reported Frédéric Bakouan, the campus delegate, as saying. These included free meals in university restaurants during the lockdown.

Issa Ouédraogo, director of CENOU, the centre responsible for student welfare, said CENOU was negotiating with its partners to see if it would be possible to provide these.

The students also demanded adequately equipped clinic facilities for potential cases of the virus. Ouédraogo said CENOU provided a health and social action service and already supported students who were in particularly difficult situations through the university aid fund.

The government has not pronounced on whether examinations will take place as scheduled in June and July in schools and universities this year.

Pousseni Bakouan, a PhD student at University Norbert Zongo, detailed in Sidawaya the choices open to the institution: sticking to the original exam dates; calculating results from classwork; setting easier tests; or delaying exams until September or October, if the situation improved by then.

Bakouan said the last option was the most feasible, and would give students time to revise and complete the syllabus. – Compiled by Jane Marshall

This article is drawn from local media. University World News cannot vouch for the accuracy of the original reports.