Two UNZA problems, One simple solution

The University of Zambia, popularly know as UNZA, faces a disruption of classes and closure almost every year. Of well known causes, student protests precipitated directly or indirectly by political interference ranks highest. Those who were genuinely smart enough to get a spot on the program rosters at UNZA in the late 70s and early 80s, would remember the numerous times when the administration would be worried upon noticing silence in the student community. The UNZA administration would provoke the student by delaying their allowances or cutting back on their meals.

Considering that the majority of students at that time hailed from humble backgrounds, it was easy to show solidarity with the students. Students likened themselves to the downtrodden, the oppressed and the helpless workers or simply the proletariat. And that they needed to rise up and defend themselves against the tyranny of the bourgeoisie. They might have very well been right because, most of them came from the mining townships where their parents bali ni ba Chimbamabwe. They had a short life expectancy; you know ku malaisha, working hard and long awkawrd hours ne ncombolo. Others were sons and daughters of government workers. Now mwaKaunda, unlike nomba, government workers na ba Chimbamabwe earned peanuts. Except the apamwamba, ba Minister, na ba Makobo. These formed the group that Riki Ililonga sang about, Olemekezeka. Of course the track was banned after burning the airwaves for a couple weeks. That is how Kaunda and his unsophisticated shiftless bureaucratic Central Committee ran the show - very personal.

So, anyway, for the most part, students were on the edge. They learned to react to any slight provocation by politicians and the UNZA administration.They would block roads, smash widnshields in anger, overturn cars, and every once in a while burn a vehicle or two.As expected, Kaunda reacted to that kind of behavior with gusto - he curse a few times, 'stupid idiots,' (like there was ever a time when an idiot was not stupid) then he would deploy and a full load of an Ifa truck, armed police clad in riot gear to disperse the crowds. They would fire teargas canisters, mixed in with live bullets, at students and all hell would break loose.

If you really come to think of it, rebellion was not a Zambian practice until the self appointed chancellor of the great University of Zambia, Kaunda, embarked on a crusade to conscientize students, preaching about his newly discovered bombastic terms - Scientific Socialism. You had to know Kaunda as well as I did or better to appreciate how much he believed he was on to something. He literally shoved Sicentific Socialism down the throats of unsuspecting students until they choked on it. I hold him personally responsible for the behavior unbecoming of a learner, bordering on stupidity exhibited by UNZA students. It was not an easy sale. Did you know that UNZA students were required to memorize the Das Kapital like their life depended on it? For those of you who are spring chickens or who resemble them, look it up. Kaunda's communistic philosophies were not an option; they were a law and woe to he who would dare disobey. Very few people could afford to be rational in his day. So much for being THE father of the nation.

But I am not here to hold on to your coattails and drag you down memory lane about Kaunda and his vigilante boys he purposely denied education and enlightenment. Rather, I wanted to set the stage so you would understand the genesis of the kacha of turmoils that has has latched on UNZA like a smudge of umulembwe beta abati pimpo mwefu. The seed of trouble was sown in the Kaunda era, by his hand. Some rational thinking students did put up a fight, though. I will not mention names. But I will tell you that they ended up being expelled from UNZA and subsequently being blacklisted. It meant that they would never get a job in Zambia. Well, as long as Kaunda was president. And he wanted to be there umuyayaya. That is Kaunda for you.

Today's UNZA is relatively calm. The calmness flows from the incident where the police, who were supposed to be maintaining peace, shot and killed one student at Great East Road Campus, in cold blood, the frequency of provocation from both the political and the UNZA administration has since subsided. However, politicians have not gotten smarter. It is like they have nailprints of irrational thinking in the palms of their hands. They behave the same way their predecessors behaved in the 70s and 80s; doing basically the same darnedest things - being irrational with some of the quickest thinkers in the nation. That is what they spend time doing, buffing their thinking wheels. Whether what their minds bake at the end of the day is useful or less than useful is inconsequential.But one can count on the actions of the politico to prostrate naked before the eyes of the students each time they try to outsmart them. Look at this garbage:

Forgo one trip and pay for students, Mumbi Phiri urges Rupiah

By Agness Changala Tue 12 Oct. 2010, 04:00 CAT

PATRIOTIC Front Munali member of parliament Mumbi Phiri has asked President Rupiah Banda to forgo one trip and pay fees for the affected students at the University of Zambia (UNZA).

About 1,132 students have been withdrawn from 2010-2011 academic calendars due to non-payment of tuition fees as required by the 75 percent payment policy.

Phiri said even the money that President Banda used to pay for Amayenge Band to go and dance in Nigeria could have been used to pay for the troubled students and enable them to continue with school. She said among the students who were withdrawn, 38 paid half of their fees and were attending classes.

“So you can see that these students actually complied and some of them have remained with six months to complete. Honestly, how fair is it that one should be withdrawn?” Phiri asked.

“I am speaking as a parent and talking to parents. If that was their son, how would they feel?”

Phiri said some of the students were children to lecturers who retired as far back as 2004 and had not been paid their money, adding that it was not easy for them to pay for their children.

How can all three organs of the government fail to solve the financial problem of our two small universities? The Judiciary would scream, 'hey that is the purview of the Executive and the Legislature!' Well, learned ladies and gentlemen, when an irrational politician says the government this and that, it includes you. You may want to argue that the appropriate term is not government but administration. Well, why don't you make that argument. When will you for once quit being stiff necked and say something in defense of the people? As long as that term is used and you learned men and women in those Halloween-like gowns and, symbol of subservience to the British crown, blonde wigs stand idly by, you are co-conspirators and guilty as charged.


Solution

But seriously, the problems of allowances and unnecessary closures can be resolved permanently by taking the government out of the equation. I mean, all vestiges of the government including the ministry of Education. To them, UNZA should be a no go area. Unjustifiable closures would then become a thing of the past. But first the following has to happen:

1. Make UNZA autonomous;
2. Hire an accounting/management firm to administer bursaries; and
3. Make funding for UNZA cost-based.

The government should add a special expense line in it budget to cover the operating costs of UNZA or better still, all post secondary institutions. Such an addition should be enacted into law and subsequent appropriations made a responsibility of a parliamentary subcommittee.

Upon qualifying to an institution of higher learning, including UNZA, students would be expected to apply for a scholarship to the scholarship/selection committee of a private accounting/management institution. The management entity would lay out terms of eligibility, ratified by the parliamentary subcommittee. The government would not be involved in the day-to-day issues of UNZA, Evelyn Hone, etc. The UNZA administration would know its roles and responsibilities - chief among them to facilitate learning. And students would have one deterministic objective when they get to their various campuses - to learn and build professional networks. The accounting/management entity being private and apolitical, will be paid based on performance - defined simply how well it responds to the issues of the students. In other words, Expediency will be the name of the game for all involved. They will have to be perfect or they lose the contract.

My fellow Zambians, we cannot continue to condemn imiti ikula to the pit of poorly educated citizens. We cannot continue to dance cintako around simple issues like this. It's just unacceptable.