| CAMPUS WARS: USE SOBER APPROACH, NOT IRON FIST | Send to a friend |
| Saturday, 14 January 2012 20:29 |
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The University of Dar es Salaam, fondly known as The Hill, was initially a mostly quiet place that hosted serious seekers of high-level education and those who imparted it. Student-administration misunderstandings were isolated and they were resolved amicably in quick time. Over the past few years, the situation has changed negatively at that pioneer institution of higher learning and a couple of the newer ones that now dot various parts of the country. Learning is frequently interrupted by student strikes that degenerate into chaos. This, in turn, leads to police interventions, injuries, damage to valuable property, expulsions, suspensions, closures and loss of hundreds of lecture hours. Students who favour the negotiations approach are often bullied by their volatile colleagues but are, nonetheless, sent home like the rest in the name of collective punishment. The administration may also use the opportunity to sift the innocent from the troublemakers. Beyond the academic world, parents and guardians worry ceaselessly about the safety and prospects of their children when disturbances rock campuses. In the broader context, society is increasingly jittery over partial funding, through taxes, of the education of young citizens they consider to be demanding, pampered and troublesome ingrates. They also question how society can seriously bank on graduates of perennially crisis-ridden universities—who are the presumed academic cream and thus the next generation of leaders. But the most alarming aspect of it all is the evidence that some of these students appear to have a disposition that can hardly be distinguished from that of a street thugs. Those concerns are justified since the campuses host a mix of students and there is the danger that the cool-headed and disciplined ones may be coerced into the bandwagon of incitement and rowdiness by the rowdy type. Separating the wheat from the chaff is not easy, but even the bad elements are largely by-products of an imperfect system that provokes negative conduct. It is inconceivable that people who have secured highly competitive university places in pursuit of rewarding careers should wreck those prospects by engaging in violence. A sober approach, rather than iron fist tactics, is essential if we are to avoid chaos at campuses and secure a peaceful teaching-learning environment. Operations of the Higher Education Students’ Board should be streamlined. Poor record-keeping, for instance, has led to losses running into millions of shillings in unpaid loans. Favouritism, based on office and family connections, is a curse as it locks out deserving applicants from poor families, who should be the primary would-be loan recipients. Quality is compromised by lecturers who moonlight to augment low salaries. So is a poor learning environment characterised by overcrowded lecture halls and a shortage of facilities that include books. In Dar es Salaam, commuting to campus from noisy residential areas where dance halls, discotheques, bars, and brothels are rampant, impacts negatively on students. Added to the tension and ensuing violent behaviour may also be the fear that, like some of their predecessors, they will find that jobs do not come easy after they graduate. But we also need a new social mindset. The zeal with which we fund grandiose wedding receptions should be replicated in the education sector so that state sponsorship goes only to the truly needy. The culture of some students spending part of their loan on lavish spending and partying erodes the goodwill of economically stressed tax payers and a government that has to contend with several competitors for a share of the not-so-big financial cake. Students should, therefore, moderate their lifestyles to restore and sustain the goodwill. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
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Better question to ask ourselves y this happen if everythng goes relatively ryt? Someone is trying to get rid of responsibilitie s our education quality is getting. Down coz higher stakeholders are nt part of the consumers therefore hard to make evaluation
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