The giant University of Malawi (UNIMA) is back in the news majoring in strikes, demonstrations and running battles.
Rewind 2011: Memories are still fresh when the struggle for academic freedom made rust grow across the corridors of UNIMA leaving thousands of young people clueless as their academic life was heavily strangled. A sad, brutal reality that was; characterized by top arrogance and
monkey tricks.
Fast-forward 2012: Government’s lack of a comprehensive dosage to the lecturers’ salary hike demands, students allowances’ hike as well as support staff perks’ top-up are exciting extravagant mess to the already bruised and crippled academic calendar of UNIMA. The dilly-dallying tactics applied are more of the same kwasa-kwasa that made the giant UNIMA dance and gather rust for over half a year in 2011. Much as the discussions and negotiations are a step towards sanity, parties involved must not overlook the fact that such time consuming measures only slap the helpless students with great injustice. Time keeps ticking and time lost is never recovered.
Reality check 2011/12: UNIMA academic calendar is battered too much that it is constantly and unreasonably abnormal. The more efforts are made to inject sanity into its recovery, the more new issues spout choking it inside out, forcing the calendar back to its knees, limping
for energy. Government needs to jack up and offer fast solutions that ultimately saves and serves young minds in the corridors of the University of Malawi and those that are pending to join the pool.
Mother Malawi you cannot afford to compromise academic excellence of the nation, hear the cries of UNIMA as its students are gnashing teeth in search of academic sanity. Remember, the highest cost of education is not getting one.
End of piece: Do not ignore the shepherd lest the sheep be scattered and lost. All stakeholders involved must stop the drama at UNIMA as soon as possible and save young people from another academic tragedy.
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