Students from Mbarara based Bishop Stuart University (BSU) have accused and placed their lecturers in the spotlight for delivering course works and lectures in Runyakore, a local language instead of English.
The students who mostly hail from the faculties of education and business blamed the lecturers for explaining hard terms of the course units in Runyakore which has left a number of other dialect speaking students in the darkness of language barrier.
In the past months, Bishop Stuart University has been left battling several court summons subjected to it by its students accusing the university and its top administration of not respecting the right of students. Among these notably was the summoning of the university before the Equal Opportunities Commission to explain the circumstances under which a guild aspirant was being prejudiced and segregated against the Anglican majority.
Now in the spotlight are lecturers being accused of constantly switching to Runyakore language during lectures yet the university admits students from a wide range of ethnical backgrounds.
According to some of the students notably a one Denmakr Adios Rubaramira, the lecturers do not only switch to explain in Runyakore language but others have made it a norm to teach the entire lecture in the local language
“BSU lecturers deliver their lectures in Runyakore and I have personally heard lecturers do that especially in the faculty of education. Perhaps their intention is to make students understand but I totally disagree that it is the right mode of instruction at this level,” Rubaramira told our reporter.
The University has also been accused of having incompetent lecturers amidst little infrastructure to support learning. According to Davidson Ndyabahika, a journalist at Uganda Radio Network (URN), the names and number of staff indicated as full time lecturers at BSU were also found to be full time lectures at other far universities in Kampala
“How can a lecturer be found to be teaching full time here and full time at Makerere University too? That cannot work and the end result is the lecturers not having enough time for students here at BSU,” he told our reporter
However, the university has not yet come out to distance its self from the above accusations or even issue a warning to the lecturers. Despite the above, many students consider use of local language to instruct at the university level shameful and backward.
