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Students` body apologises over strike
2007-05-03 09:23:01
By David Mambo
The Tanzania High Learning Institution Students` Organisation (TAHLISO) has apologised to the government following the recent strike by students at the University of Dar es Salaam and at least one other institution of higher learning.
This is according to remarks by TAHLISO President Bruno Ngingo at a news conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday at which he also explained that the body, an umbrella organisation for all university students` associations in the country, was in no dialogue with opposition parties on the matter.
Hundreds of students boycotted classes for two days running last month pushing for 100 per cent loans from the government through the Higher Education Students’ Loan Board.
The undergraduate students, who were later suspended indefinitely, were against the board’s decision that they be issued with only 60 per cent of the loans and cough up the remaining 40 per cent from their own sources before continuing with studies.
``We appeal to the government to forgive all the students who took part in the strike so that they resume studies without conditions because a solution to the problem is still being sought,`` said Ngingo.
``I also warn opposition leaders trying to take up the matter to suit their own political interests to stop feeding the media with wrong information.
The strike has adversely affected the students and most of them are languishing in the streets of various urban centres,`` he added.
The TAHLISO leader called on the government and the authorities at the respective institutions of higher learning to work out strategies for enabling the suspended students to resume studies without conditions.
He said demanding that the students pay the 40 per cent contested was ``next to impossible for many, considering the fact that most come from poor families``.
Ngingo explained that concern raised by the students through their organisations over the loans structure and conditions were genuine ``only that they were wrongly presented``.
It was not immediately clear whether representative of the suspended students` approved TAHLISO`s position.
The Daruso (Dar es Salaam University Students Organisation) president and speaker were not reachable yesterday as their mobile phones kept ringing endlessly without reply.
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