Speaking in a press conference, at Quill Club Thursday afternoon, Mukono said they were tired of empty promises by the Government of National Unity in the face of poor learning facilities and astronomically high schooling fees.
“Our call to students is that lets immediately begin to demand by refusing to pay tuition fees since government has promised to pay,” he said.
“This would send a clear message that indeed we demand and shall have our loans and grants this year without fail,” added Mukono.
Last year while presenting the 2013 national budget, Finance Minister, Tendai Biti allocated one billion dollars to education in general and promised that tertiary institutions would get $11.3 million for loans and grants which would be raised through increased excise duty on tobacco and alcohol.
Mukono said if state institutions would respond by chasing away unpaid students they would resort to mass action.
“Even if they want to dismiss students from attending lectures for not paying, this time we are not going to run away from them but will be aggressively resort to mass action and this is the last thing any government would want to avoid,” he said.
ZINASU called on for the replacement of the cadetship scheme with grant system which has caused a lot of suffering in most students.
“We demand that the loan and grant system immediately replace the outdated and counter developmental cadetship which had condemned students to unimaginable sufferings,” he said.
“More than 50 percent of Midlands State University students failed to attend the graduation ceremony because they had failed to pay up their tuition fees and most are still to be conferred with their transcripts,” he added.
Mukono said the grants would not only cushion students from financial crunch but have also gendered impact.
“The gendered impact of the sorry situation could not be escaped as the majority of female students engaged in vices such as trading sexual favours in exchange for material gain, all these would be addressed by availing the loan scheme,” he said.
Mukono called on President, Robert Mugabe to immediately appoint a substantive Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, saying a ministry as critical as this could not continue to operate on auto pilot.
Currently, Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, Ignatius Chombo is Acting Minister for Higher and Tertiary Education since the demise of Stan Mudenge last year.
Meanwhile, Mukono said the call for the boycott to pay tuition fees was part of the ongoing serious lobby and advocacy initiatives that ZINASU embarked on in September 2012 “Final Force Campaign” as a vehicle for pushing the government to prioritise education as a key driver of development and freedom.
Post published in: News