The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Noela Oyugah And Irene Mchomvu
6 November 2008
Two students were injured and property damaged yesterday at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) when some students rioted to press the Government to abolish the cost-sharing policy in loans allocation.
The students vowed a few weeks ago to press the government to pay them 100 percent of their loans and abolish the policy saying they could not afford to meet some of the costs.
At the Mlimani Campus, the students went on rampage, roughing up their colleagues who had boycotted the demonstration and randomly beat people on the campus.
Property was damaged especially at the university's engineering department where a group of students had decided to attend lectures despite the demonstration.
Another angry mob also charged at The Citizen photographer Said Powa who was left with chest injuries after he escaped the marauding crowd by a whisker.
The injured students were rushed to a campus clinic. One of them had a deep cut on his head, which required stitching, while the other had a deep cut on his hand.
One leader of the students,,Silinde David, who introduced himself as secretary-general of the Association of Public Universities in Tanzania, said the students wanted the government to pay attention to their demands.
"We have no problem with the university administration. Our problem is with the government, which is not willing to deal with our issue," he said.
He said the students' behaviour was also a message to UDSM student representatives whom he accused of failing to take their issue to relevant authorities.
However, UDSM dean of students Martha Qorro said the demonstration was illegal since it had been done without the approval of the student body.
"Their leaders went to parliament yesterday (Wednesday) and we have not been informed of their demonstration. It is just a decision by a small group of students," said Mrs Qorro.
She said the previous student body had already taken the loans issue to the Minister for Education and Vocational Training who was still working on it.
The minister reportedly told the students to give the government two months to resolve the problem.
"The two months given by the minister are not yet over. So I urge students to be patient they should go back to classes," she said.
She warned the demonstrating students that should they persist with rioting and disturbing classes they risked having the university closed.
"If they have any other problem besides the one being handled then let them go and see the minister so that he can deal with their concerns," she said.
However, she said if there were any students seeking assistance with regards to fees they should talk to university management rather than disturbing lectures.
At the Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE) there were also reports that students have been on strike over the same issue since Wednesday.
Under the cost-sharing policy, the governments assesses the capability of each student to cover some of the costs before providing them with loans.
But the students said they needed the whole loan uniformly disbursed to all deserving students.
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