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THIS letter is in response to suggestions to students to make use of the government’s cadetship scheme.
Let me highlight some simple facts about the comments on the cadetship scheme.
I found the suggestions to be inherently misleading and insensitive especially as most tertiary students are failing to settle their tuition bills, myself included.
The government recently announced that it had disbursed around US$400 000 for the cadetship scheme nationwide and one does not need to be an mathematician to realise that such an amount is a drop in the ocean for the countless underprivileged undergraduates nationwide.
Ultimately, universities set out their own criteria for awarding cadetships and a student’s social status is not one of the benchmarks used for one to qualify to access the funds. With all due respect, to posit that students expect to have their tertiary education given to them for free is grossly irresponsible and unprofessional considering that a sizeable number of students is dropping out of colleges every semester because authorities argue that cadetship cannot be for everyone.
How can anyone compare our tuition benchmarks with those of South Africa? A majority of Zimbabweans especially in the countryside do not have access to multiple currencies.
Most tertiary students today have a peasant background or their parents include civil servants; teachers and nurses among others earning $150 a month, and it is from this same “salary” that most students look up to for their tuition.
My mother in Zhombe is a typical traditional Zimbabwean peasant earning a living by selling vegetables from her garden and I should also hasten to point out that with such a background I am not considered “underprivileged enough” to benefit from the cadetship scheme, let alone the presidential scholarship.
Beyond the supposed “cry baby” attitude that characterises students lie genuine cries for help from students facing hardships. I hope one day the media will find it in its professional heart time to look at the plight of the victims before defending the perpetrators.
It is totally mischievous for someone who probably benefited from free colonial education to try and justify the tuition fees that Zimbabwean universities and colleges are charging today. Denying us the chance to education is a crime against humanity and a gross violation of our rights.
Joachim Garikai
Midlands State University
Gweru.
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The real irony of the matter is that the same government which pays its civil servants a miserable $150 which are mostly the parents and guardians of the undergraduates is the same government which is in charge of the universities which are requiring exorbitant tuitions. The salaries they give to the civil servants are but a small fraction to the fees required at the universities.
The setting up and disbursement of the cadet scheme is just but another element of ill constructed and poorly managed program which is quite a regular characteristic of the Zimbabwean government. it is imperative that the government work in rebuilding the country from the roots upwards and by supporting its undergraduates it would be working on its roots.
An educated nation is a prosperous nation henceforth let us take a closer look at our education system a bit m*re closely.
There is light at the end of the tunnel, Zimbabwe shall be great again...