Student Unrest

Its day three of the student strikes and I’m not feeling so comfortable being around campus. Sara and I took off for the morning. This has left me with lots of time to think about what is going on and why. As I keep reading the newspapers, each day there is a little more about why the students are striking. It’s far less hush hush than it was a week ago.

Loan money is at the center of the controversy. The students want the policy of cost sharing implemented a few years go by the government discontinued. As of today they are calling for the resignation of the Minster of Education over some of his policies.

So far things have been peaceful. I don’t trust that they will remain so. It’s easy for people who are frustrated to do things they otherwise wouldn’t when they are in a large group. I hope nothing happens but I don’t want to accidentally end up in the middle of something.

Watching all of this makes me thankful that we have student government systems in place at home to work closely with our universities so things rarely if ever get to this point.

While most people are focusing on the students themselves, I am thinking about the other people around campus this will impact. If the campus is closed the two large cafeterias will close leaving 60 or so people without a job. There are the duka owners who will close up shop because the foreign students cannot generate enough business for them to keep an income. The university will cut back on cleaning staff sending more people home without a job. Catering services cease in on campus cafes and dala dala drivers see decreased business because these former employees as well as students aren’t coming to campus daily.

The students striking have a huge economic impact on the community surrounding the university. The shutting of the university affects families across Dar as the breadwinners have to look elsewhere for work or business opportunities. In such a tight job market, those may be few and far between.

This whole thing is something I’ve been dreading since the topic first came up because someone would ask me how I feel about it. The truth is that I feel bad for the students, but it seems really unreasonable to ask an already heavily indebted government to foot the bill for even more of their education. I can see pouring money into fields where professionals are needed – teachers, nurses, engineers – those kinds of things, but is there a critical need for such a large group of sociologists or cultural heritage managers. I’m glad that people have the right to choose what they want to study, but is it the government’s responsibility to pay for your degree in art?

This brings up a whole other issue. Who is collection on the loans that have been paid out? From the people I’ve talked to there is little to no government follow through in this area. The firs round of students who got loan should be out of university now. It’s time they start paying back into the system so that money can be used for current students instead of the government “borrowing” from other budget sectors putting them further in debt.
I’m not enough of an economist or a business minded individual to completely understand the system but there seems to be so many hiccups. I have very little commentary left because the whole thing is frustrating because I watch my friends loose their chance at an education because the university is disrupted as well as see the government go further in debt giving loans with money they don’t have.