New student book coupons welcome

Mmegi Editor | Thursday February 27, 2014 16:29

The announcement comes after several years of an unreasonable standoff between students and their sponsor, the Department of Tertiary Education Funding that went back to the days of the latter’s equally controversy-riddled predecessor, Student Placement and Welfare that stoked intermittent demonstrations and class boycotts by students.

University of Botswana students, for instance, have for many years complained of the high prices that the bookseller prescribed for them that amounted to extortion when there were other suppliers with better prices.  For some reason, the government turned a deaf ear to the complaints of the students regarding this enforced monopoly in a country where the so-called free market system should determine prices. As a matter of fact, when the government did act, it was to go on a witch-hunt during which certain students were identified as the ringleaders inciting the trouble on campus. Thankfully, some of the cases reached the courts which ordered reinstatement of the students. Just under a year ago, students at Limkokwing University engaged in several strikes and class boycotts, also because their complaints about a prescribed bookstore were falling on deaf ears. In some instances, students were forced to continue with their studies without prescribed books because the monopoly bookstores were unable to supply them.

But what made this coercive arrangement singularly is that far from gratis, the sponsorships are loans that are payable upon completion of studies.  Mercifully, those unhappy days should soon be over because according to this week’s announcement, from April henceforward, each tertiary student under government sponsorship will have an unrestricted coupon to allow the student to purchase books from bookstores of the student’s choice.  This being a decidedly welcome development, we hope students will be responsible enough and use their coupons for their intended purposes and not any other way. By this development, we can see that MoE can turn a new leaf and do the right thing.

Perhaps the ministry should similarly soften its stance on teachers and meet their legitimate demands at least halfway, particularly the issue of overtime and extra curricular activities. This would obviate situations such as two weeks ago when teachers abandoned students at Mogoditshane Senior Secondary School and elsewhere around the country after MoE reneged on payment of overtime due to them for conducting athletics competitions and sporting activities.

With shocking arrogance, MoE officials responded by ordering an instant end to the sporting activities and barring the offended teachers from boarding government vehicles. This was unbelievable, seeing as how some of the toffee-nosed officers are former teachers who have resorted to abusing their newfound power to settle scores from the past.  We hope that the leadership of MoE will find it fit to investigate the unqualified harassment of teachers that doubtless affected students as well.

                                                   Today’s thought

“Give a bowl of rice to a man and you will feed him for a day. Teach him how to grow his own rice and you will save his life.”

                                                            - Confucius