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Botswana: Nkate Blames Students for MCE Closure
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
18 July 2008
Posted to the web 18 July 2008
Lekopanye Mooketsi
The Minister of Education and Skills Development, Jacob Nkate says Molepolole College of Education (MCE) students are to blame for closure of their college this week.
The ministry ordered the closure of the college on Monday after a week's student class boycott. The students embarked on the boycott in protest over water and power shortages, among other grievances.
But the minister said yesterday that he would not just watch when the situation was getting out of control. "My friend democracy has its own limits," he declared. Nkate said it was shocking that the students had continued with the class boycott even after their representatives held a meeting with him last week. He said during the meeting it was agreed that a task force of senior ministry officials, college management and students' representatives, should be formed to look into the issues that students were complaining about.
The task force, which was supposed to report to him on Tuesday, was also expected to map the way forward. Nkate said during the meeting, it was agreed that students would resume classes. He said the SRC apologised and was unanimous that the approach they had adopted was wrong before making an undertaking to convince their members to return to classes.
He felt the meeting was productive but had a rude awakening when he learnt that students were continuing with the boycott. He said when he heard that the students were still boycotting classes, he suspended the work of the task force.
Nkate said on Friday he warned the SRC about reneging on the agreement they had made. "I told them that if by Monday, you don't go back to classes, I will close the institution," he said. Nkate said students would continue to inhabit the hostels despite claims that the facilities were inhabitable. He said the students "can not continue to sleep and eat at government expense when they are refusing to attend classes".
He denied that the facilities at MCE are dilapidated because the college underwent full renovation last year. As for the water crisis, he said, the whole village is facing a shortage. But he blamed the students for causing the power blackouts. He said the students over loaded the electrical system by connecting cookers, kettles, fridges and other electrical appliances. He added that if you take 800 people, all using electrical appliances, the power supply would be over loaded. He said there is a problem of vandalism and indiscipline at the college.
"Some of those students are vandals, they break things up. They wanted hostels to be closed so that they could be paid off campus allowance," said Nkate. He said even at the University of Botswana (UB) at some stage, the hostels were not fully occupied because students preferred to stay off campus so they could be paid off campus allowances. He said when students have genuine problems they are always willing to attend to them.
He noted that he did not expect students to bath with cold water and this was one of the issues that they wanted to address."If you have a problem with members of your family, it doesn't help to sit outside the house. You have to open dialogue. The students misbehaved. I didn't close the school, they forced my hand to close the school," he said. "You should ask them why they boycotted classes when we were still talking," he said.
Nkate said he does not know when MCE would be re-opened as he was still consulting over the matter. But he said they would reopen the college only when the students are willing to play ball. Nkate said the strategy of the task force was the same one he used to resolve crisis at the Lobatse and Tlokweng Teachers' Training Colleges and the Gaborone Technical College (GTC).
He said GTC was only closed because the SRC representatives refused to meet with him at his office. They insisted that he should go and address them at the college. "But I was not going to do that," said Nkate. He said his office is maintaining an open door policy and student representatives are always welcome to meet him. He added that even the University of Botswana (UB) students met him over their grievances about four weeks ago.
However, Nkate vowed that he would never be held to ransom by students. "Listening to them doesn't mean that I must lie on the floor so that they walk over me," he said. Nkate said the conditions of the tertiary institutions are fine. "If you have a broken window you fix it. You don't have to start throwing stones at other people."
MCE Student Representative Council (RRC) secretary general Ompatile Emmanuel said they briefed students about their meeting with the minister and about the formation of the task force. However, he said, the students did not want to resume classes because in the past the issues that they had raised were never addressed despite assurances from the authorities.
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He said they would only resume classes if there was evidence that something was being done.
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| Copyright © 2008 Mmegi/The Reporter. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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