Makerere University Rioters are Irrational
Yesterday saw another day of riots and demonstrations by Makerere University students over a plan by the institution to increase tuition fees by 15%.
The students in their usual rowdy manner raided business and surrounding areas and looted shops that had remained unclosed leading to financial losses.
The media as usual focused on the eye catching photographs of students that appeared to have passed out from exhaustion and tear gas by anti-riot forces.
However no focus has been put on the issue at hand. Why would an institution want to raise it’s fees collection and why would students be against the move?
Makerere University is the oldest and most prestigious institution of learning in the country and has of recent been faced with financial difficulties to inadequate funding.
As times have changed, tuition fees at the university have grown at slow pace and thus has led to steady decline of services. With low fees collection, it is hard to attract the best lecturers and teachers to the university.
Learning trends have also changed with time and the incorporation of technology in education has become the way to do things. However it is impossible for a university to acquire these developments with the meagre fees collections.
More so, a quick look at fees collections in nursery schools in Uganda will show that a typical makerere university course costs as much per semester as these lower schools earn per term.
This begs for rationality on the part of the students and their parents. Do they truly believe that the education they seek at the campus is of lesser value than that received by infants?
The strikes at the university have also been historically influenced by politics. The latest one has been very much supported by the people power group.
Bobi wine and his cronies have mobilized the students through their leadership to stage these violent riots and soil government image.
However as Ugandans we need to learn to cherish what belongs to us. Makerere University is a national and African heritage.
We cannot simply look on as it falls behind modern trends. If we truly want a good product out of the university, we need to act like it.
A tuition hike of 15% is not the end of the world and we have to accept that anything good comes at a costs.