Opinion: The State of State Tertiary Education System in Zimbabwe

The state of tertiary education in Zimbabwe: A case of student suppression and repression at Nust

The story that I present here is a personal story of my experiences as a student leader and activist at the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) in Zimbabwe. I enrolled at Nust in August 2005. This is a narrative presentation of a story of injustice, torture and denial of rights, at an institution that must be a citadel of intellectual civilization.
Since 1980 when Zimbabwe gained independence up until 2005 students at state tertiary education institutions were offered grants, of which later, were turned into loans to help them finance their education by the government. Universally, state universities are state utilities, which are meant to provide a service to all deserving students irrespective of their socio-economic status. In 2005, the government scrapped the loan system for students, thus paving the way for the commercialization of state universities.
Upon the realization of the continued deterioration of the standards of learning at state tertiary institutions, gross human rights violations by the government and misgovernance, students organized themselves through student representative councils (SRCs) at their respective institutions and the Zimbabwe National Students Union (Zinasu) to protest against the apparent failure of the national higher education system, which was a symptom of policy and governance failure by the Zimbabwe government.
Student demonstrations at Nust to protest against the crumbling system are violently crushed by the repressive state apparatus. Student suspensions, expulsions and abductions are the order of the day. The situation at Nust is hopeless.
The signing of the power sharing deal between Zanu- PF and the two formations of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) which culminated in the formation of a coalition government in February 2009, brought a glimmer of hope to I and many other students at Nust. However, the audacity of hope turned into the reality of fear. Under the coalition government, tuition fees at state universities range between US$415 and US$1 600 a semester. This is against average monthly salaries of US$100 a month for most workers, whom the majority are sponsors of students at tertiary education institutions.
Even with the high fees being levied, the learning conditions and environment continue to deteriorate. Imagine a university in the 21st century without internet services for its students, a poorly stocked library with outdated books and very few books relevant to the curricula, outdated curricula irrelevant to Zimbabwe, Africa and the world, inexperienced academic staff and filthy lecture rooms and sanitary facilities. Therefore, as students we have a right to protest against the appalling situation at our university. As students we use various formal channels of engagement with the university, but authorities have turned a deaf ear to issues that we raise. It is against this background that we have resolved to use the mass media, internet and peaceful demonstrations to attract the eye of the government and other stakeholders.
However, the government and the university administrators have reacted savagely to peaceful demonstrations by students. Anti-riot police are summoned to campus to beat students peacefully demonstrating, and the university administrators are suspending and expelling students who take part in demonstrations and protest activities. In essence demonstrations have been banned at Nust. The banning of demonstrations and the violent suppression of peaceful demonstrations is a violation of human rights. The government must note, and understand that each generation faces its own challenges within the realities of its own context and in that sense its own dreams and hopes. Students at state tertiary institutions today face so many challenges, of which they must be given an opportunity to express and posit solutions to them.
Student leaders who have led demonstrations against this unfair system have been victimized, with some of them being suspended, expelled or jailed. At Nust, the President of the 2008/09 academic year SRC, Kurayi Hoyi, Secretary General, Samson Nxumalo, former SRC Secretary General from the preceding SRC, Vivid Gwede and ten other students have been suspended and criminal charges preferred against them for a peaceful demonstration that took place at Nust campus, on the 16th of April 2009.
To ameliorate the situation the government must reform its education policy and ensure that vulnerable students are cushioned against tuition fees beyond their reach. In contemporary society university education is not a luxury, moreso when we are living in a knowledge based community of nations. Universities serve as incubators of knowledge, melting pots of cutting edge scientific research and centres of innovation. This argument has gained common currency among academics and post-modern thinkers.
The government must abandon its current policy of overtaxing, the already burden taxpayer, by asking them to pay astronomical fees for public services. Instead the government must preoccupy itself in efforts aimed at resuscitating the economy. This is the surest way of ensuring that people get economically viable jobs and that are able to economically sustain them.
Students at state tertiary education institutions have been unable to tackle some of these challenges because they live as atomized individuals. There is need for students to come together in their various faculties and form academic societies and clubs that speak to their respective needs and wants. It is along this wise that they can be in a position to influence university decisions and policies through their department chairpersons and the respective, Faculty Deans.
State tertiary education institutions in Zimbabwe have been turned into commercial enterprises and this has led to the depletion of the very same oasis of human resource development which must serve as a reservoir of generating human resource energy to socio-economic development. Repressive and anti-academic tendencies by the state, have also led to the stripping away of academic freedoms and violations of student rights at state tertiary institutions. The government must reform its act; it must restore academic and human rights for all. State tertiary institutions must encourage the proliferation of student groups on campus to create a universitas.
///Ends…