FORMER University of Zambia Students’ Union president Solomon Ng’ambi has condemned the Decision by management at the institution to abolish the semester calendar for the term system.
He said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday, that the University was moving into an outdated methodology of learning at a time when most Universities were adopting the semester system.
“I believe world over international standards of Universities are moving from the yearly calendar to the semester system for various academic benefits,” he said.
Mr Ng’ambi said this was a sign that the University had run out of ideas of the 21st century as this move would not be good for the students adding that they would only be sitting for exams at the end of the year which would give the students work overload.
He advised the students’ movement to speak out as this would greatly affect their studies.
The decision to abolish the semester academic calendar for the term system which will be effective in October 2013, was arrived at on Sunday afternoon when the University management had a meeting to discuss which calendar was best for the institution.
UNZA Mgment always looks for ways to start Students riots.
I think they enjoy seeing riots and closures.
This is really stranger all universities i have studied in in the world use the semester system. Which university uses the term? I think UNZA management has to think twice about that decision. I think this new system of theirs will make it difficult for students who want to further their studies to get advanced standing etc. This is when the students union should come in. Not the political stuff they usually involve themselves in.
Except the British ones, I think
meant ..strange
I went through the semester system at UNZA when it was first introduced.. It was very convinient. Why the sudden u-turn? Backward thinking.
he is a fool resisting change.
I have never studied at UNZA but i have in different European universities.From the look of things the move by the UNZA management is very unfair to the students.I can`t imagine waiting for a year to sit for my exams.High time the university management reconsidered their position.
Zebige you are right! I studied at UNZA under the term system – now I teach in a semester system. I can certainly confirm that the semester system is the better option. It also offers the opportunity to give in-between semester courses in compacted form for those who wish to catch up and pace their progress a bit faster. Perhaps UNZA could be pricing themselves out of business considering a number of universities are now springing up around them.
Those opposing should only talk about the systems in the universities they studied. It is misleading to say all the universities world over are using the semester system. Zambia just needs to develop its own system of higher learning system and not always trying to do what others are doing. In Finland the system is totally different and it is embraced by both local and international students. I do not know which country has the education system similar to that of Finnish universities. Maybe when they have terms, they will be having exams every three months and reduce their work load. What is the point of designing education in such a way that you have huge exams every end of year when the exams can be incorporated during the course of the year. No wonder they forget easily time is too long
The Jackal – interesting point. But have you stopped to observe how heavy the support on teaching and learning is in Finland compared to say Zambia (leave alone the Western world)? Research on Finland’s exemplary system shows how much more involved teachers are in ensuring drop out rates are almost non-existent. If we have to grow our own system we will have to develop a self-contained economy. I very much doubt a consumer-based economy like Zambia has much room to stand on its own two feet in terms of that question. The Germans have gone further to retain the apprentice system because most of their industries are small-scale, family owned at the most.
I am a lecturer at UNZA. For your own information, it is not even clear from the advocates of a term system whether we will be having exams at the end of each term or we will be having them at the end of the academic year as was the case when the term system was in place.
Infact those who are for the semester system have no clue how it functions. UNZA is too poor to adopt a semester system. That was not even a semester system. It was a two term instead of three term system with courses halved in order to offer them in two instead of three terms. Don’t argue when you have no clue about things. Just watch.
In addition, advocates of a return to a term system have not even produced a written document based on an evidenced based assessment of the semester system as it has operated so far and how this compares with the term system as it was implemented before. At least lecturers supporting the retention of a semester system have written a well-researched petition paper to management that advocates of a term system have failed to even respond to. It has already been circulated to lecturers electronically.
Have you all forgotyten that UNZA is just equal to a high school? PF is illiterate and so is the UNZA nanagement.
GK has said the correct thing. i studied at unza under both term and then the semester system. As students for the sake of it we opposed the change to semester. but now i know the best for unza is the term and not the current 2 term system which you prefer to call semester. UNZA is too poor and cannot afford to run an effective semester system. lets not pretend that we can run a proper semester system. Do you even know what confusion comes with feeding of students to the medical school which has all along run a term system?
I studied at UNZA under both semester and term systems n here r the benefits of a term system:
1. It allows the University to catch up on lost time, they r now opening in october instead of February, meaning school leavers have to wait for almost two years before they get int university. With the term system, they will be gaining on the 2 months dedicated to end of semester one exams! So by 2016, they should be starting an academic year in February.
2. The lecturers and tutors won’t be under pressure to mark and prepare results for semester one as they have been having 4 weeks to do that between semester one and two, and if you have been to UNZA, u can imagine how much relief that would bring to the lecturers in the school of education!
3. It saves students frm registration…
This is really backwards… I don’t see any sense in moving to the Term System. I was at CBU, which since time immemorial, uses the archaic term system. Its really horrible, imagine sitting for 9 exams in one examination session on top of that you have a project/dissertation… Ever wonder why the failure rate at CBU is high, its simply because of the term system.
UNZA students, stand up for what is RIGHT. Don’t let management take you for granted.. VIVA SEMESTER SYSTEM
CBU is considered a third rate university and the only intake which put it on the map was the 2000 intake being the cream for that year ended up at CBU due to the closer of the main campus.The fact that they had raised the pass mark to 50% and still more than a 3rd of the group completed with hournors and the majority now have distiguished degrees from around the world shows that its possible and quite practical to use the term syystem and still excel.Ask the doctors they dont have time to line the roads every so often time is short for politics so they dig in and study religiously some thing the DEVELOPMENT STUDIES & EDUCATION MAJOR’s dreed.Frankly its a good experiment to see the effects.
The arguments for a Semester system are very shallow. What workload? UNZA school of medicine has been training doctors using a term system. It is very effective. So why should a student study a course for two months, write an exam and forget about it! No wonder we have half baked engineers!!
Mostly from UNZA akirri you ask most employers and they prefere CBU engineers to UNZA graduates who are regid and not mouldable.All they want is a big car and free time to play and do giggy giggy.The term system actually makes life easy,here is the formular for passing those with eyes please read and share with your friends:
1.Ensure that you pass you end of term tests
2.Ensure you hand in your weekly assigments
3.Ensure you complete all your labs and submit(Old copies of the labs are always available from ba monk,visit any monk deignated area you will find them.)
4.The sessional is based around the same term tests-revise the term tests and understand the principles of the theory.
5.Gunning will not help at the end.The cow cannot be fattenned on the day of sale.Ask father DO
Really it is going back to the 14 th century. What a backward way of doing things? A semester system is just the best. IS it that the lecturers at UNZA do not want to do research by going back to the term system as in secondary school where there is no research? Semester system has 2 to 3 months recess in which period lecturers concentrate on research. Now I understand why there is no research at UNZA. Lecturers dont know research period.
Peace and Prosperity to Mother Zambia.
ASk yourself this question: Are the lectures,happy with this……Obviously
UNZA authorities must have, surely, considered the attendant pros and cons of the options before arriving at this decision. Former UNZASU leader Ng’ambi must find better issues to deal with, in his personal life, than engage himself in issues that no longer concern him.
I sat in the CBU senate for 2 years. During that time, the lecturers were fighting for the introduction of the semester system at CBU so that they have enough time for research. Alas, Unza lecturers are now using the same reason of lack of research time to advocate for a term system.
Having been at CBU and excelled through out my four trimesters, I will still insist that a trimester system is retrogressive. Unzasu should fight for the upholding of the semester system.
I studied when UNZA had the term system in the 80’s. I was lecturer at UNZA when the semester system was introduced. I am senior lecturer now in another university which claims semesters. The term system is better. First year students pass through 8 months to adjust to new life before being grilled in exams. Also UNZA and all Zambia and many African varsities do not really have a semester system because modules are offred either in first or second semester. In true semester system, all modules run all the time and a student has choice when to take it. So why keep pretending? Viva UNZA, viva term system
Iwe Solomon Ng’ambi don’t be lazy. I graduated from UNZA through a term system of academic year, which obviously made me feel very closely associated with and also part of each of my courses for the full duration of the year. The only difference with the two systems is that in the term system the full academic year’s work is completed in one full year whereas in the other the full academic year’s work is divided into to halves each of which is completed in 6 months. So, in essence the university is teaching you the same things in one year and they must be allowed to determine the most optimal way of scheduling and allocating their resources in a way that makes the running of the institution viable, and that’s not the domain of students! Are you watching too much of SA toyi-toyis?