Mak strike: Ministry tells students to return to class

The Ministry of Education yesterday appealed to Makerere University students to abandon the strike and go back to class saying their grievances are being looked into by the management of the university.
“The ministry is confident that the management and the University Council will resolve the issues raised by the students,” the ministry’s spokesperson, Mr Patrick Muida, said yesterday.
Asked why the ministry has not intervened, Mr Muida said they have a representative on the university’s council who will update the ministry when the matter is presented before council.
“We already have the Commissioner for Higher Education who represents us on the University Council. However, the ongoing demonstration against the 15 per cent tuition policy is still a management matter but if it is forwarded to the council, then our representative will update us on all the proceedings,” he said.
However, he declined to comment on the continued military siege of the university where soldiers were arresting students from their halls of residence and hostels last week.
Since last week, students have been protesting the increase of tuition fees across all programmes that will be effective in the academic year 2018/2019 for the next five years.
This, however, means that a student who joins the university at a given fees structure has a 15 per cent included and he or she shall continue to pay similar fees until he completes the course.
However, the students’ leaders argue that their recommendations about tuition increment were ignored before management passed the policy.
The university manager of communications and international relations in a press statement last week said students’ representatives had backed the 15 per cent policy.
The ongoing demonstrations have since paralysed the institution, with the military pitching camp at the campus to quell any protests. There was a public uproar last week when the military broke into students’ rooms in Lumumba Hall of resistance and allegedly beat up students.
In a press statement issued yesterday, the Makerere University Guild President, Mr Julius Kateregga, said the student leaders will not be intimidated by the ongoing military deployment at the university. He accused management of threatening to suspend them for protesting the contentious tuition policy.
“……..we called for dialogue several months back to iron out our cries but they kept on dodging us. Even when we met, they focused on the least important of our cries and shut us up when it came to biting issues. We were despised and blackmailed with a view that should we raise a voice to protest, we shall be expelled from the university,” reads guild leadership press statement.
However, Mr Kateregga said he and his colleagues will not relent until the tuition policy is reviewed.