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UDSM students strike: Who is to blame?
2006-10-02 08:58:08
By Gerald Kitabu
WHO is actually responsible for provision of loans for students at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) who went on strike in the recent past clamouring for the same which has been overdue?
The government, Higher Education Students Loan Board-HESLB and the UDSM administration have the answer to this question.
Some students interviewed on different occasions explained that there was communication breakdown among the three organs.
Every party distanced itself from being the major cause of the loans delay.
A fortnight ago the UDSM’s main campus was engaged in running battles with the anti-riot police force when they were protesting delayed disbursement of their educational loans by the Higher Education Students’ Loans Board (HESLB).
The university management was forced to call in the anti-riot police after the students blocked the road leading in and out of the college.
The students’ crisis, however, worsened after all students at the college boycotted classes to show solidarity with their colleagues.
According to some students, the government had indicated that it would provide loans for 7,500 students but after the list was revised, the university posted 6,000 names of eligible students on the notice board.
However, until the boycott of classes crept in, less than 1,400 students had received the loans.
Talking to the press, the students said that since the beginning of the new academic year on August 19 this year, they have been going without meals as a result of non-disbursement of the loans.
They said only the first batch of 1,100 students had received full loans, while only half of the second batch of 360 students had received the same.
DARUSO’s Minister for Loans, Mtatiro Julius, expressed concern over the government’s foot-dragging which he attributed to a disagreement between the UDSM administration, HESLB and the Ministry of Higher Education Science and Technology.
”The disagreement was attributed to ever-changing loans disbursement modalities,” said Mtatiro.
According to him, the students’ claims were genuine because the funds were supposed to be deposited in their bank accounts in August when the university opened for the new academic year.
And the students organisation’s president, Magesa Mwita, said the loans were delayed because some names were not forwarded to the loans board adding that the loan application forms were not forwarded to HELSB by the university.
”The problem does not affect first year students only, but all UDSM students. We had planned to march to the loans board offices to protest against the delay,” he said.
It is said that during the strike there were students who had genuine demands for the loans but there were also others who took advantage of the crisis to push matters in their own favour.
According to Mtatiro, the delay had forced some 200 out of 7,500 eligible students to return home as a result of the financial hardships they were experiencing.
However, HELSB chairman, Nimrod Mkono, said that his board had already disbursed loans to 6,136 first year students under government sponsorship which amounted to more than 1.8bn/- and 5.4bn/- to students already at the college.
However, he said that there might have been a few isolated cases where some genuine cases might have been affected in the course of scrutiny of names.
He said students who went on strike were not qualified for the loans adding that they simply mobilized others who later joined the strike without knowing realities of the matter.
He went on saying that investigation by the board revealed that 1,471 students who went on strike were admitted under private sponsorship while others did not meet the minimum merits for admission into the college for both males and females.
He said other students who went on strike were those in the science biases but are not under the government’s sponsorship such as teachers, engineers, agriculture experts and medical doctors.
He said that the Board’s conditions about who qualifies for the loans were clear.
He said that implementation of the government directives is possible, but requires time to work it out. He said one week was too short to implement the changes.
”There are three parties that are involved in the matter: the government, universities and the loans board. What we’re doing is to implement the new directives, which requires time,” said Nimrod Mkono.
When reached for comments about the students strike, UDSM public relations officer Julius Saule said first year students’ grievances were genuine.
He said that they were right to strike, although the mode of protest is not proper. The university is not concerned with loans disbursement. This is a problem between the students and the loans board.
Earlier, the UDSM administration requested that the students be given 50,000 shillings each to support them while the matter was being addressed by the government and the loans board but the students turned down the request.
Addressing a press conference, Science, Technology and Higher Education Minister Prof Peter Msolla reiterated that the government would not sponsor students admitted to the university under private sponsorship.
He said his ministry, through the Higher Education Students’ Loan Board (HESLB) had already disbursed loans to all eligible students.
He therefore ordered striking students to resume classes or else legal and disciplinary measures would be taken against them.
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