My Alma Mater slips
The University of Namibia is losing trust and fast. Allegations of cheating in examinations at our premier tertiary academic institution, coupled with allegations of procurement fraud and subsequent firing of the VC of Academic Affairs, are the symptoms of a much more serious malaise.
The university management’s response to genuine student worries does not receive the kind of attention you would expect from an academic institution that should be innovative in their thinking. Instead we are stuck with another government funded institution with a bureaucratic clog of process and procedure. The kind I would like to think requires a toilet plunger.
It would be hard not to think that the current state of affairs at Unam is not propagating a culture of corruption and mediocrity to the future (un)employable workforce that Unam keeps churning out.
For those that think that this opinion is exaggerated, ask any Unam main campus student what their impression of their Alma Mater is. First ask them who the Vice Chancellor is and when last he addressed the student population. Prof. Lazarus Hangula has become an obscure person to students. I recommend him and his team to compare notes with the Polytech’s Dr Tjama Tjivikua.
I applaud individual academic and non-academic staff members and departments for their hard work.
Management however, being implicated in a series of allegations of corruption and maladministration, would be casting a shadow on the Student Body, as inept. Think of it as a trickle down effect. The student representative body is in talks with the Unam management while legal action is mooted No talks on reform. Just good ol’ student politics tantrums. How cute.
How sure can we be that the proverbial shytes hitting the fan after the dust settles on investigations would reveal a festering culture of self servitude. Air Namibia, Unam what is the difference?
Unlike other parastals who seem to become gaping holes where resources are dumped into, Unam’s ungovernable behaviour gaining traction is surely a sign of a “don’t care attitude.” As a student, that is certainly the impression that I have been forming and so have many other young malleable minds.
This is steadily being accepted as the way things are done. Creating a stagnant septic pool of old ideas, and a future labour force brought up in such an academic environment, leads to lacklustre minds at at best.
Looking at the bigger picture of our tertiary educational system and the supposed goal of a Knowledge-based society come 2030, the current situation looks dismal and the output is disappointing to say the least.
Allegations abound of inept medical students pushed through the newly established School of Medicine curriculum. To me this sounds only too similar to expensive Namib Poultry chickens.
A boring, lengthy fullpage spread press release was issued. Is this another trait of institutions like Unam who waste money on lengthy disaster management Public Relations? What is so difficult about holding a media briefing and giving us the truth, not as fodder, but as real intentions with substance that we can believe. Either way, just more fluff and covering up, no real solutions on the horizon.
