Despite the looming lecturers’ strike among varied Kenyan Public Universities, some institutions are up and running. One such institution has issued a notice to all students asking them to attend classes and all scheduled activities as the semester comes to a close.
A notice dated November 18, by the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) to all students read in part, “As you may be aware, this semester is scheduled to end on Friday, 13th December 2024. You are reminded to attend all scheduled activities in your Departments and Schools/Institutes. In particular, you should observe class attendance at all times.”
“Class representatives should report to this office if there is any disruption of class activities,” the notice further stated.
This comes as students in public universities have witnessed crisis after crisis, from a standoff over the new funding model to the industrial action by lecturers in public universities across the country, which has left thousands of students in agony with learning activities grinding to a halt.
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University Student Leaders
According to student leaders under the Elimu Bora working group, the disrupted academic calendar has occasioned immense mental torture to students who are now uncertain whether they will complete their coursework and prepare for exams in good time with graduation plans for a section of the students now thrown into disarray.
They are demanding an immediate resolution of the standoff to save them from the immense mental torture and financial strain that they are currently suffering while staying in school without learning.
Students across several public universities will begin their fourth week without lecturers in classrooms as the industrial action by the University academic staff Union continues.
The standoff between lecturers and government has agitated students.
In their latest briefing on Sunday, a section of student leaders under the Elimu Bora working group lamented that they are now staring at a lost semester.
Furthermore, the leaders remarked that a lot of learners are stranded not knowing if they are going to graduate this coming December. As such most of them are not even sure if they are going to do their end-of-year exams.
Notably, Emanuel Magawa, the Executive Director, of the National Students Caucus highlighted that the quality of a semester is directly impacted by the number of hours that the lecturers and the students contact so in the absence of a particular threshold we cannot comfortably say we have had a successful academic year.
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Also Read: Babu Owino Begs University Students to Proceed with Planned Strike
Students Lament Financial Constraints
The students lament that the strike has caused them immense mental torture and an unnecessary financial burden.
“There are parents who are making a lot of sacrifices to ensure that their learners. At any time, these learners are in the university for an extended period to what they had initially planned it becomes a very straining thing to those parents and sponsors,’ David Kimani member of Elimu Bora Working Group lamented.
This is the second strike by the Dons in under two months after the previous one that was suspended on September 26th.
The university dons are accusing the government of negating the return-to-work Arrangement that saw them call off their initial strike.
“If you have given a member 7 percent it will show, and we are not dealing with the educated people who do not know how to calculate 7 percent and 4 percent so you cannot kill them and you want University Academic Staff Union (UASU) officials to be part of that manipulation. That one we will not do,” Constantine Wesonga Secretary General for UASU stated during a media interview.
Efforts to resolve the paralysis in institutions of Higher Learning are yet to Bear any fruit with the students now saying that enough is enough.
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