No Second Chance at Unam

I WANT TO air my displeasure with the Unam policy on supplementary examinations and winter/summer schools.

Mr President and members of the legislature, take note that the Unam Council does not allow a student who failed an exam to have a second opportunity.

Instead, the student must register for winter/summer school, and pay the full module fee before they can attend classes, and ultimately sit for the winter/summer school exam. Not all students can afford the full fee for the failed module, while they still owe tuition fees for the semester/year.

To make matters worse, students at campuses outside Windhoek have to travel to the capital to attend the summer/winter school for certain modules at the main campus. A student who has, for instance, a 70%, CA mark but fails to obtain a 40% mark in the exam does not get a second opportunity to be re-examined at no additional cost.

This is more challenging to distance students in particular who suffer a great deal of inconvenience in the delivery of education, compared to their full-time counterparts.

This current practice by the country’s premier university not only disadvantages the less fortunate, but also undercuts the very fundamental objective of public sector organisations “to provide essential services equally to everyone at a fairly affordable price”.

Unam is making a fortune through this practice, and so are the lecturers, at the expense of unsuspecting students, who are desperate to get an education, and make a change in their lives and those of their families.

I, therefore advocate that the winter/summer schools be abolished sooner rather than later for the benefit and future of the Namibian child.

An affected student

Windhoek

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