Epidemic of strikes in Tanzania's higher institutions

A PICTURE is worth a thousand words, right? Technically you could replace every article of a similar length with a single picture. It is just that since beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, a thousand persons looking at the same picture might not see the same messages, positive or negative.

Some of us need extra help with our sense of imagination. For some people, you have to draw and label the lines and shades in a picture. So let me paint my picture with a thousand words.The pictures of students and teachers on TV screens and on newspaper pages in the past few weeks have been colourful to say the least. Students dragging others from buses or classrooms to force them to join the strikes amounts to violence.

So does the action of striking teachers throwing chairs at their leaders in a meeting hall. He called off the strike on finding out their actions were deemed unlawful by a court of the land. Should union leaders defy court orders?Since that court ruling, teachers have been going to school but doing zero teaching in class. That amounts to theft of the future of young minds. Theft similar but of a different magnitude to that of economic saboteurs.

Are they being paid salaries at the end of each month to silently 'teach' from their offices? No visible action has been taken by authorities despite evidence that indicates the slow strikes have crippled teaching all over the country this year. Who will pay for the learning denied to primary and secondary students in public schools?

Pretty soon the long arm of the law will catch up with teachers and students who break the law. Maybe forces of the crown will be forced to use forceful means to quell the epidemic of strikes that have bedevilled Bongoland in the past year or so. When force becomes first aid, we can join the ranks of Kenya and Zimbabwe where law enforcers are not so restrained and results of their handiwork end up in hospitals and beyond.

Our police should have arrested law breakers but they chose to err on the side of caution. So far so good.Before long the calm that has characterised Tanzania since independence may become a veneer of peace, tranquil on the surface but a simmering volcano lurking underneath. We risk losing the moral high ground of peace and tranquillity, losing the enviable title of the island of calm in Africa. Just because a few rowdy students whip their colleagues into a frenzy of mass hysteria, culminating into grand assembly of offspring of lumpen proletariats and bourgeoisies, chanting and ululating, reminiscent of 'ndombolo' and 'mdundiko' dances in the wee hours of the morning.

We have seen hordes of pseudo-intellectuals on TV, who dared to call themselves 'wasomi', struggling to juggle TVs, DVD players, impressive music systems and their suitcases large and small, as they scrambled to leave campus after they were booted out. These striking students of education, science or humanities will breed rebellious future teachers. What will they teach our grandchildren when they seem bent on earning a degree not yet offered in regular universities, Bachelor of Striking and Rhetoric with honours (BSR Hons.)?

The defiant, fire-breathing future intellectuals have vowed to fight on and strike again upon being reinstated at some unknown future date. You want to know how they spend their money, loaned or otherwise? Visit Mabibo hostel or any other dormitories of these potential future servants of the public.TV antennae growing like a forest of potted plants on windows for all to see. A cacophony of sound that passes for music flavours will assail your ears, unless you are deaf to the obvious. May be they got those from hire-purchase shops? When do they seriously study, these music and vision lovers?

They want loans for every student to be raised to 100 per cent. Give us 100 per cent loans or else what? Crucify the loan givers? Why not apply at banks for your loans? This is what happens in Europe and North America. Students apply for loans for studies at the local bank. That way, they know they must work hard to pass all examinations in order to pass with flying colours so that they will land good jobs after graduation. You can bet the western students do not necessarily spend their loan funds to buy stereos and TVs for their student rooms.

Our students have made a flying start with striking frequency. We know they will in theory repay the loans at some future date. But who will pay the costs of their present day strikes? The costly disruption of studies for those intent on serious learning; when will local and foreign students on and off-campus study for their degrees? What about the thousands of Chang'ombe, Mlimani, Muhimbili, Ardhi lecturers, cleaners, administrators, repairmen, cook, secretaries and other workers who will be paid while Universities are closed? There will be bills accumulating, for electricity, water and other services that the universities had budgeted for, to cover periods when classes are in session.

Should the universities and colleges take bank loans to cover budget deficits caused by disruption of classes? There will be return fares in thousands of shillings from sweating parents and guardians who can not afford the additional unbudgeted costs. Should parents sink further into debt because their boys and girls behave like we owe them extreme favours? It would seem like since the new semester started, the young women and men are in combative mode, striking to keep the iron hot.

They raise legitimate issues regarding how student loans are administered. For example, that there may be students from well-to-do families getting loans equal to 80 per cent of costs while some from poor families only qualify for 60 per cent. They should present the evidence for such an allegation to the public. Let the public judge and law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute. Accusations are not sufficient justification to cause open and hidden loses to public resources through strikes.

It may be time for Universities and colleges to strike back. Uproot the bad apples before it is too late. The nation cannot afford the costly strikes nor can it afford the culture of settling legitimate concerns through illegitimate means that seems to be taking root. We sent those youngsters to study. We do not need them back home so soon. They must do their part. They must remember sacrifices which others have made to get them where they are. They should pay back in kindness.