Skyway students feel cheated as school’s administration fails to give their diplomas
Skyway students who wrote their examinations under Trans Atlantic College (TAC) board are now demanding their diplomas and have since threatened to take head on the College, now University to court if they fail to provide their results.
This follow a story published on Nyasa Times two months ago about Technical Entrepreneurship and Vocational Education Training Authority (TEVETA) closing African College of Theology and Management in Dowa because of the college’s failure to give the students who sat for public health TAC examinations under Skyway as a center.
It was believed that Skyway was holding the results asking students to pay extra money but further investigations now reveal that Skyway never had the results.
When internal students saw the article they started following up with their college and established that although the results were out, the diplomas were not yet in their possession for over a year.
A statement by the concerned students made available to Nyasa Times is accusing the school’s management of playing hide and seek game on the matter.
“We would like to help in spreading this message about Skyway University formally known as SIMARD. The College forged to be in a partnership with a so called UK-based extermination board called Trans-Atlantic College (TAC) which it has just been discovered that it does not exist,” reads part of the complaint.
“Students studying Nutrition, Public Health, Rural and Community Development, HIV/AIDS Management and Disaster Risk Management write their examination under this board. Right now, diplomas of students who sat for their examinations in 2009, 2010, and 2011 have not yet arrived.
“It appears like management was just abusing the examination fees paid by the students. On October 17th there was a meeting at Skyway Blantyre Campus where management said they have ended their agreement with the TAC board though no light was shed on these diploma certificates which haven’t yet arrived.
“The management has just said that the diplomas will come curtsey of the new board which they will form a partnership with,” concludes the last part of the students complaint.
Efforts to speak to the Skyway’s Exterminations Officer proved unsuccessful as his number could not be reached after the reporter tried it several times. But one of the officials at Lilongwe campus who did not want to be named for privacy reasons confirmed that the students haven’t yet received their results and that they have indeed ended the relationship with TAC.
“Its true these students have not yet received their diplomas but results were out and we are currently trying to address the issue. So far I can confirm that we have also terminated the contract with TAC and we have identified another board called ABE.
“This is an administration board which is in partnership with another board ABP that accepted our modules and agreed to take over from TAC. But for those who have not yet received their diplomas we are working on that and we are thinking of going there (UK) to meet them in person because we normally communicate through emails and they are just saying that they will sort out the matter soon but time is not on our side,” said the source.
On allegations that the board does not exist, he said that it’s not true and that people can check their website on internet. Lewis Msasa who is the Information, Education and Communication Specialist at TEVETA said that they were not aware of the issue and asked for some time to investigate.
“We are not aware of the issue but just to say issues to do with the examining boards, weather original or not are usually checked by the institution itself and these institutions are governed by various instruments like the education act and in our days when registering an institution we look at the composition of the board while it’s up to them to check on their examining boards.
“But as TEVETA we will investigate the matter to establish what really happened and see how best we can help the students and after that we will definitely come back to you as well,” said Msasa.
Skyway was founded in 2002 and has campuses in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu. According to their official website, the college is also partnered with other boards like Pebble Hills University, CIM, ABMA, ACP, PITMAN, ICM and many others.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
