Unam Blocks Access To Education
I AM humbly requesting you to accord me a space to cry out for the rescue of our tertiary education.
The senior students’ accounts with outstanding fees have now been blocked to prevent any access to them or registration.
That means no student who owes the University of Namibia [Unam] has the right to access even his/her results anymore unless he/she ‘cleared the outstanding bill’.
The outstanding payment has to be made in full before the new registration is authorised. That means, if one cannot pay up, he/she risk being blacklisted (read ‘blocked’) from Unam forever. Why should Unam be allowed to be a law unto itself in this country How many students from the poor families and or who were not fortunate to be granted the MoE’s loan guarantee will be denied the right to tertiary education What is the reason of having the national slogans like ‘My Namibia. My Country. My Pride’ or ‘Vision 2030’ then if we are planning to fail I am not saying students must not honour their financial obligations but the way Unam is treating its senior students is tantamount to a nationalised disaster.
It is just unthinkable for Unam to expect its senior students to pay off the debts that ranges between N$3000 to N$10 000 per student and at the same time they should have as much as N$5000 for registration for the 2013 academic year. One is also surprised by the dead-silence of the Unam Chancellor, President Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba, and the Ministry of Education (MoE).
What is the role of the Head of State as a head of a national? institution of higher learning Is the main objective not to promote education and ensure an educated nation? Something needs to be done to rescue the future of this country or we are doomed. The education of every Namibian must be our priority. If the State has money (in millions) to bail out some mal-functioning or bankrupt parastatals, why is there no interim, financial guarantee for Unam to allow students to register for 2013 - at a reduced fee - while they are trying to clear their bills? Imagine, how many senior students have their accounts blocked and risk to dropout from all institutions of higher learning if this is the trend. But at the same time the MoE is promoting “compulsory and free of charge primary education”.
How many ministers’ and the president’s children have dropped out of school since independence due to financial difficulties
A very worried senior Unam student
Windhoek