STRIKE CONTINUES
Almost a week has elapsed
since lecturers at Zimbabwe’s state universities began their strike over
non-payment of last years’ bonuses and delay in payment of their January
salaries.
Government’s failure to
pay civil servants is well-known by now but what staggers the mind is the
docile climate that has come to characterise state universities. It is
compelling to write off student activism as a phenomenon past its prime.
Student activism used to be no mean power broker in Zimbabwe during the 1990s.
When students used to project freely themselves the government used to listen
to their clamour. The power that used to be associated with student leaders was
something to be considered by the government when dealing with issues critical
for the smooth-running of education system, including the lecturers’ welfare.
Lecturers strike for
their own cause, being non-payment by the government not students but if the
Student Representative Councils (SRCs) thorough across state universities could
come together and fight in solidarity with the lecturers whose rights the
government is trampling on, it would be for the good of our higher education
system.
The strike by lecturers
is an academic battle to restore the dignity and value that was once associated
with our education system.
If the SRC leaders were
bused to Mazowe to endorse Grace Mugabe whose fast-track PHD is still a talk in
Zimbabwe’s academic circles, why should the same “patriotic” student leaders
remain quiet when professionals with authentic credentials are being stripped
naked by the government.
What is so academic about Grace Mugabe’s accession to the post of secretary of
ZANU-PF women’s league?
What is so academic about
the relationship between ZINASU and MDC Renewal?
It is not only shameful but uncalled for to see future leaders fight for
association in old-fashioned political entities which are not only
retrogressive but have DNAs that disregard youthful vitality.
It would be no surprise
if the Zimbabwe Congress of Student Organisation (ZICCOSO) was to send a
solidarity message to Finance Minister Chinamasa for failing to avail funds to
cater for the lecturers’ welfare on time.
It is pathetic to see the
once vibrant ZINASU waiting in mendicant fashion for donors and MDC formations
to pour in money for them to realise their founding principles and values.
Our “future leaders” have become copies of the old establishment self-evident
but shameful reasons.
Student leaders are now
frontiers of political parties not the students they claim to represent.
University students continue to multiply but instead of uniting into a relevant
voice that the government can hear, their unions are an unpleasant discord.
The political economy of
these unions has turned them into stooges who know nothing as to why they
exist.
ZICCOSO waits for the
order to strike from ZANU-PF’s commissariat department while ZINASU waits for
anyone to give its grease its leaders’ hands for them to wake up to their
mandate.
The shameful results are self-evident, that is, the downgrade of our once
prestigious higher learning system.
This semester is a
decider for thousands of destinies. Dissertations are mid-course and it is the
time when students are in the most critical need for lecturers.
When lecturers come back
for work, we are likely to see a marathon teaching style where students are
going to be taught how to pass exams rather than critical engagement with
concepts and theories that apply to their different disciplines.
This partly explains why
our universities are now producing half-baked graduates a matter that has been
raised by a number of mainstream media.
The development has been
attributed to high enrollments exceeding the capacity of lecturers who are up
against poor working conditions.
This should be a cause
for concern for Zimbabwean students.
It is time students came
together to chart a new chapter, with the restoration of dignity in our
education system as a starting point.
Student leaders should
come out of the decaying institutions in which they are helping to destroy their
own future and face reality.
