Thursday, March 28, 2024

Over 500 Zambian Students stranded in China

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From right, Mr Walubita Imakando Ambassadot To Malaysia , Mrs Winnie Chibesakunda Ambassador To China nand Mr Josephy Mwape Mukukka Projects at The Statehouse- PICTURE  BY EDDIE MWANALEZA/ STATEHOUSE.
From right, Mr Walubita Imakando Ambassadot To Malaysia , Mrs Winnie Chibesakunda Ambassador To China nand Mr Josephy Mwape Mukukka Projects at The Statehouse- PICTURE BY EDDIE MWANALEZA/ STATEHOUSE.
OVER 500 Zambian students are stranded in China for failure to pay full school fees while five others are in detention for flouting immigration rules.

Zambia’s Ambassador to China Winnie Chibesakunda said the number of expulsions, arrests and deportations of Zambian students in China has been on the upswing since 2014 and is now approaching crisis level.

Ms Chibesakunda said in an interview before departure for China that the mission has been dealing with an increasing number of cases of self-sponsored students in distress since 2014.
Official estimates from the Chinese Government indicate that there are about 1,800 Zambian students in China.

Ms Chibesakunda said 161 of the 1,800 Zambian students are on Chinese Government scholarship administered by the Bursaries Committee of Zambia while a few others are on other forms of scholarships agreed directly between Zambian and Chinese universities and ministries.

She said the mission in Beijing has, since the commencement of the 2015/2016 academic year in September 2015, received various requests for assistance from some Zambian families.

Ms Chibesakunda said the requests were from families whose children or dependants were on the verge of expulsion or were denied visa renewals on account of outstanding university tuition and accommodation fees.

“Some of these students have since returned to Zambia either under deportation or after their families subsequently raised money for their tickets and the mission intervened to assist them to obtain exit visas and avoid arrest,” said Ms Chibesakunda.

She said the mission is currently addressing eight urgent issues of privately-sponsored students in distress.

“While Zambian families have been sending students to China for some time now, the numbers have grown exponentially over the past three years. This is partly due to the aggressive marketing drives of some Chinese universities as they seek to enhance their international ratings by enrolling foreign students.

“This has created an opportunity for the mushrooming of student recruitment agencies in Zambia, which are paid by Chinese universities. The promotional activities of the agencies, which include promises of scholarships coupled with the general perception in Zambia that studying in China is very cheap, has led to a steep rise in numbers of Zambians studying in China in recent years,” she explained.

Ms Chibesakunda cautioned parents and youths in Zambia against falling prey to the aggressive marketing strategies by recruitment agencies advertising Chinese universities with scholarships.

14 COMMENTS

  1. Before you go to a foreign country make sure you have enough funds to sustain yourself….this is one of the VISA requirements…just come back home

    2016 vote PF ( Edgar )

    I thank you

    • Funny how chinese flock to western nations for a better education, running away from their own, whilst we seem to be running to theirs!! Zedians will find themselves enrolling in “salaula’ type schools!!

  2. This is how tertiary education has become desperate just because Kadansa & his bashi iris are mismanaging UNZA & CBU.
    If only someone would understand the edunomics involved here. While our forex has been depleted in sending these guys to china they will still come back “empty-headed”.

  3. when Zambian have money or mineral, they keep it in Switzerland . when they are sick, they go to south Africa or London. when shopping, they go to china or Dubai. when on holiday, they would rather visits America or London. when educating their children, they select china, UK or Malaysia. when praying they go to Lagos. But when they die or in problems they want to be buried in Zambia or the GRZ to pay their bills. Is Zambia a cemetery or only good when u have failed to be an opportunist in foreign land…..lets trust our systems in Zambia pliz. How many Chinese come to study in Zambia and become stranded later?

  4. Parents please be warned that when sending children to study abroad on self sponsorship don’t fall prey to “Student Recruitment Agencies”. Use these agencies to only get the contact details of the available Universities abroad then do the application yourself by directly contacting the College in question.

    These agencies rip your hard earned money and give you fake promises that your child will be entitled to scholarship once in China. Once your child is stranded then these same Recruitment Agencies will not come to your aid. they will just give you stories without explaining why the scholarship promised was not awarded to your child.

    Let us not depend on free things…Education is expensive, so prepare adequately if you are to educate your kids.

  5. The high number of students is not only due to massive marketing by Chinese Universities but partly to the extremely low tuition fees in Kwacha terms, some three to four years ago. The average annual tuition fees are US$ 4,000 which was affordable and competitive to UNZA and CBU when the exchange rate was around US$1 – ZMW 4; with the added advantage of high quality learning. At that low exchange rate it made logic to send kids overseas, buy second hand Japanese cars or whatever options were logical.

    The Ambassador should have stated that the high rate of failure to pay fees is due to the extremely high exchange rate which is at US$1 – ZMW 11.3; which total madness. The PF is to blame for lack of prudence in the management of economic affairs. We need skilled and experienced human…

    • Kabili “Ifintu ni Lungu”, Now you have sold your children to where you can’t help them – encourage them to rear chickens in china just like chinese do back in zed, then we will see the reciprocation by our good friend China!!

  6. We need skilled and experienced human capital to run our developing country. Human capital is an asset, and no matter much borrowing we accumulate, no tangible goals will be achieved without the engineers, doctors to run the economy. At this infant stage in our development, any sensible government should take over the burden of educating their nationals as a long term investment similar to infrastructure investments like roads, railways, waterways, airports, schools, hospitals, etc; because the benefits from sound human capital development accrue to the Nation not the Parent.

  7. The problem with African politicians in general and Zambian politicians in particular is that they want to do something which people will see immediately and not something which wont be seen now but whose benefits will accrue in the future.

    Africans run politics of appeasement and that is why generally the African continent is poor despite the vast natural resources the continent is endowed with.

    The other problem African leaders have is a disease called misplaced priorities. The disease is endemic on African continent.

    It is my hope that the combination of candidates who are rich but educated will bring sanity on the developmental scene.

  8. we suggest u choose ELIC-study in China http://www.elic.com.cn which is organised by Chinese public universities, by far hundreds of Zambians get into chinese universities thru ELIC. ELIC is famous in Chinese embassy in Lusaka , and Zambian embassy in Beijing.

  9. Comment: very weak Government indeed the mismanagement of Unza and Cbu will now detemine our brothers and sisters lives abroad sure # wala

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