By the University of Zambia,Office of the Secretary general,Ruin Police (RUPO).
It is now paramount for us the students to realize that if we keep quiet we may have to extend our stay at the university unreasonably longer. Time as it is said is money; each bit of it lost is never gained. The once great UNZASU is now a coward and failing to speak on this issue of surmountable importance.
UNZASU has been reduced to nothing but a rubber stamp of government policy because we as students elect our union based on EMOTIONS and not the quality of DATA one has.The past UNZASU elections can easily be likened to one where we made a massive mistake, similarly to the national elections.We voted for H.E.MICHAEL SATA hoping for a better tomorrow after the morning of 23rd September,2011, has it come? We the students can answer that. Our tomorrow is bleak; our hope of opening on time is slowing being pushed to next year, this translates to losing an entire six months, because of what???[pullquote]Remember these current police force and not service is brutal we ask all students to please not engage in protests or any form of violence for now[/pullquote]
Government failure to address the plight of poorly paid lecturers who have inadequate teaching aids, overcrowded lecture threatres, which are too hot without air conditionings. I do remember Dr. Chiputa (UNZARULU PRESIDENT) coming to a lecture with an umbrella so as to protect himself from the leaking roof due to rain and this is at the highest learning institution in Zambia. Why did Dr. Ngandu (former Registrar) leave and go to ZCAS where he is currently the Executive Director there? Poor conditions of services can be the only answer.
Lectures train human resource that develops this nation but the conditions faced by our lecturers are pathetic and hence the strike being justified. We therefore need to react to this indefinite closure. Many may ask how???
Firstly, government seems not to be listening to the cries of our noble lecturers. We need to make them listen, we need to organize
ourselves since we are all home in the various districts around the country meaning we can not use the monk square to resolve this very
urgent matter but students in Lusaka can meet at monk square.
RUPO is therefore calling on all students around the country to organize themselves and issue a press statement through your local media agency. This is to expose the government inconsistence on tertiary education.
Students are asked to engage their parents and lobby for they support and enlighten them on the consequences of the continued strike by our lecturers. To Students whose parents are in government and are ministers, Deputy Ministers, senior and junior government officials please engage them and ask them on our behalf to deal with this closure swiftly( please engage the mothers even more).
These are the first steps to our series of actions which will unfold in the days to come.
Remember these current police force and not service is brutal we ask all students to please not engage in protests or any form of violence for now. RUPO has given government this week reach find a solution to this strike and senate to issue new opening dates.
Lets continue to unite, united we stand divided we fall.
VIVA STUDENT POWER!! VIVA MONK!! VIVA MOMA!! VIVA MATURE!! VIVA UNZARULU!!.
I regret voting for pf i wish to apologise to all those i convinced.i cry for my beloved unza and zambia.studnts lets mobilize all else we perish
This is why UNZA is always under-staffed because who wouldn’t leave with just such pathetic conditions yet well educated and qualified. Now the institution has become a poaching ground for universities abroad and other research institutions.
ili isukulu nalyena..awe mwe….any way…i graduated from there…..
YOU WANTED SATA AD CHANGE IN 90 DAYZ…..
UNZASU is busy politicking instead of lobbying Gov’t for better conditions.
The whole union has been bought off, I mean why are they always singing praises to Sata and defending him. They are more concerned about their pockets than their education!
UNZASU was even busy calling for chief justice to step down but on these issues directly affecting students they union is quiet.
Genuinely needy but brainy Zambians will now suffer because on the pretext of saying only the elite benefit, Gov’t is now scrapping the bursaries, but tell us how does that stop the elite????
It just puts more pressure on the poor.
Nomba ba RUPO nabo ichisungu, kwati te nsitude sure!!!! such a short public document and you make tense, plural-singular, adjective, etc errors. Ema grades yakushita aya.
For me RUPO is the face of unza, this says a lot about unza quality!
If only the elite are benefitting from the current bursaries, does it mean that changing it to a loan will stop them???
And obviously for these elite to benefit they must have some connections or strings which they pull, when it comes to paying back the loan, what will stop them from pulling those strings and deferring payments???
The real problem is in the system and Gov’t should accept that and change it!
Otherwise the needy students will have a harder time accessing education which is actually supposed to have been free on 20 September last year.
An emotional Chibuku analysis from the ruins…
# 4: Don’t sway us from the real issues. This guy has a point. The consequences of this strike are grave. There is going to be All Africa games or whatever in Zambia and UNZA will be used for accommodation. If this closure is left unchecked, UNZA will only re-open next year after the games! Now, who wants to lose such valuable time?
GRZ should live up to its promises. Why should UNZA be a poaching ground for other universities in the region and even within Zambia and yet it is such a small uni as compared to other countries. Why should lecturers at CBU get more money and better conditions of service than their counterparts at UNZA?
The government systems in Zambia are dead, starting from local government, housing, education, social welfare, etc etc. Nothing is operational any longer and with an old head at the forefront, do not expect new ideas at all but the same shit that has contributed to sending this once proud country to the brink of of ruins. Thats all!!!!!!
This is a very sad development under the PF Government which I have supported so much! We thought our beloved President would change things for the better! But we still want to handle UNZA matters like in the stone age. Let us be serious. UNZA is laughing stock in the whole World!
And where is your Union? They were quiet vocal on the retirement of the Chief Justice something that was way beyond their comprehension.Kick the i..diots out of office asap.
UNZA like CBU is now a rotten education institution. Something must be done to the institution and I mean not just doing repair, but the education system after grade 12 is not helping society. This assesment can only be done by educated government officials. What kind of graduates to you expect from these institutions when all they know is demonstrations and violence. At UNZA I only give respect to Ridgeway campus!
UNZASU did you not know that Ukwa was illiterate when you were voting for him? You ripe what you sore and i hope you have learnt a good lesson
BENGlish too much.
UNZA Prerrenial problems will not go away by casting a blind eye. The government needs a long term planning for this institution or similar ones in this nation coz after UNZA it will be CBU…… UNFORTUNATELY THIS GOVERNMENT IS ALCKING SERIOUSLY on this planninga spect so I dont expect much but hopefully they will, they can liquidate the retirees benefits who they owe in billions form the time I was STUDENT LEADER THERE. then look at the conditions of service of lecturers which are lower than those of CBU staff when UNZA has more qualified lecturers than CBU……? THEN ALLIED WORKERS CONDITIONS THEN STUDENTS CONDITIONS AT THE INSTITUTION viz aviz accomodation and allowances or loans. this is still a public institution and the government should take responsibility 100% or else if they h
Ala stop blaming H.E. Michael Chilufya Sata…give the man a break! he only came to power last year & UNZA problems have been there for decades!!! am sure he is trying to come up with a solution!! blame the past govt for the state in which u r!!! & for your own information student loans started a long time ago, they r only going to be enforced now!
Stupid contribution- Do yo understand the issue at hand? fools like you don’t deserve to be alive.
We can’t even sit up to write coherently – everything is half-measures. No wonder this problem has persisted for DECADES!!! Standards are on compromise year in and year out.
bootlickers protecting grade II (Ukwa)
@ No. 17 Pixxy Can you be serious with your life. PF is in government and it has to act on the issue correctly. So if you blame the MMD were your Sata was No. 3 untill after he was dribled what are you going to achieve. Everything it is MMD, MMD when are these CNP guys going to acknowledge that they are responsible for day to day running if this enterprise called Zambia? You are the people that are always clapping even when you are insulted by some minister as Lunatics for calling for windfall tax when it is them that came with the same idea before elections.? Go to sleep Pixxy!!!
I have no excuses for PF, I would like to air my views too. Firstly, I acknowledge the predicament in which we find ourselves and it is an acceptable. Having stated that, the problem is not a tiny one but a titanic one. The current government truly needs to act because they are in power now, although we should also take note that the mess in which UNZA finds itself now is not as a result of PF being in power. Secondly, Truth be told that the University has been neglected by previous governments and PF should not follow suit hence people’s change of government. The proposed idea of making government listen to student’s concern is a vital one and the PF government should act responsibly without ruining people’s trust. Lastly, I believe the PF government will come up with a solution.
Is there any difference in terms of remunerations between UNZA and CBU. I ask because CBU lecturers rarely go on strike as compared to their UNZA counterparts. Is it just politics at play?
Yes. CBU lecturers have better conditions of service than UNZA lecturers. There is a big gap in their salaries (for the same qualification and position), thats why UNZA lecturers cross over to CBU. What a shame!
I just cant figure out how Ukwa managed to convince our educated fools! the problem is that zedians now think with their bellies and not brains. We are in total shit!
Sata is not the causer of unza problems
The problems lie deeper,.in western countries alumni who have had a successful career give something back to their alma mater .UNZA has produced so many successful people,yet they give nothing back.In zambia we have a culture of not giving something back to what made us successful.Even in a cut throat capitalistic society there is huge culture of giving back and not wait for govt to do everything.Let us as a people be more generous and contribute to society in a meaningful way, after all we did not become successful in a vacuum.
Ba PF ufweni what people are saying pliz.
The conditions for lecturers at UNZA are not that bad. UNZA is one institution with better salaries. The major problem is the lecturers themselves, they have no idea how to manage that institution. Look at ZCAS, its very well managed and with no cry baby mentality. Believe me, no matter how much money the govt can pump into unza, there will be no change. Those professors and doctors, they need to change their thinking.
ba ngwere stop cryin charity katanga is there 4 u wapya baisa
ths situation has always been there, amd am sure the only solution is to give more funds to ths institution…pantu iyi situation tayakapwe. if only the so-called policy makers and ever under performin paliament knew how mch pressure the lecturers face they wd have done somthing. The problem wth us, zambians, is tht we like concetrating on our own better conditions of stay than lookin at others wth data….Shame chi Govt….chankola sana.
when Michaek sata was Minister without ncito under Chiluba in 1997..UNZA was closed for a year..what do you expect..?he will not open it ..he doesn’t realise its importance..hahaha
It is ver sad. the closuse in 1996 which distored the unza calenda will always remain in my mind. We had to march to the Ministers office to protest. Yes…the idea is ok. all lusaka guys we arranged to meet at Monk square, and marched passed behind show grounds, before you know it were at Longacres and crossed to Lusaka City council (behind) where the offices of MOE were there then. As a mature student, time was not with me and I realised another year would land me in my 30s so we just had make a move..and trust me, before Cops new it were being addressed by the minister. Do not blame SATA for now…deal with the minister…it will be quicker. I lost one full year, but at the end unza was opened.
brain drain in our country ll continue to be a character of many graduates…look at hw many zambians have left ths country for bettter conditions of service…why? beacoz the conditions are pathetically poor. a good local example recntly z the depature of the then UNZA registrar Dr Ngandu to ZCAS..This could be among other reasons why he left….Am hoping to leave ths country as well….mulendoleshafye!!!!!!
# 26
Thats not true. If UNZA salaries are not bad then why do UNZA lecturers resign and join CBU or ZCAS? CBU lecturers have better conditions of service than UNZA lecturers. There is a big gap in their salaries (for the same qualification and position). How can you have a well trained lecturer with a PhD getting as low as 7 meter?