According to a letter by Prof Sabiti Makara, an associate professor of Political Science at Makerere University published in the Daily Monitor, the Government miss understood the strike and reasons why Makerere University Academic Staff Association (Muasa) t?went for a sit-down strike.
Here is what he wrote:
The recent sit- down strike by lecturers at Makerere was misunderstood by government. It was a genuine demand for an incentive allowance – for which lecturers serve the university beyond working hours – that is, teaching evening students from 5pm to 10pm
Universally, university lecturers are regarded as intellectuals that is they are thinkers, researchers, teachers, innovators, theoreticians, champions for human rights and social justice, political commentators, business advisors, engineering advisors/ designers etc., and are generally supposed to make a positive impact on society.
By the nature of their job, they are called to serve and devote all their time and energy to serving their vocation. Teaching in a university is not a job one does for self-benefit. Instead, it is a service to the public.
Where other professions charge a fee for a service e.g. lawyers, accountants, consultants etc., a university lecturer generally provides it freely, for example, there has been a growing tendency for other teachers below university level to charge their students for extra lessons.
This is generally not the case at most universities. Once a university student has paid tuition he/she should be taught.
At Makerere University, an academic views his/her work as that of teaching, supervision of students’ work, research, and serving the wider community. These are the main parameters for promotion from one rank to another.
By the time one climbs the professional ladder from a teaching assistant to professor, he/she should have excelled in all the above. Most times, if a professor is called upon to give a public lecture or to participate in a public event, he/she does not expect to be paid. The same applies to supporting students’ activities, and rending advice. This is all in the spirit of the conception that the vocation of a university lecturer is similar to the biblical adage of “fishers of men” not “fishers of fish.”
Modern nations
In most modern nations, employers of university lecturers recognise that these men and women are devoted to “fishing men and women” for the scientific future of their countries. This recognition encourages their employers to pay them reasonably. Why? Because in most cases, their salary is their only source of livelihood, and members of their families.
In developing countries, some university lecturers use part of their time to engage in consultancy. However, they must ensure that this does not interfere with the key responsibilities for which they are employed at their university.
In most cases, a university lecturer should do policy and pure academic research. This is imperative for advancement of knowledge, for example publishing policy papers, scientific journal articles, books and briefs.
Many stake holders benefit from such papers, mainly the research community, students, government and other policy actors. It is futile for one to teach in a university and he/she does not engage in research and publications, then he/she is not making a contribution.
In some countries, an extra pay is given to a lecturer for scientific papers he/she has made in a given year.
Also, one’s reputation as university professor depends on research output/ publication/ briefings and seminars convened by him/ her. A professor is supposed to create new knowledge.
Demand for a living wage
Makerere lecturers have been at the fore-front of the demand for a living wage since the 1980’s to date. Many at Makerere argue that it is futile for social actors such as university lecturers to demand for social justice for others while they are being deprived of their own rights.
In most cases, the government has been responsive within available means. Steadily, government has promised to improve working conditions for all workers of public universities. This is still far below the regional wage average.
There are few misconceptions that the public holds against Makerere lecturers.
The public does not understand why lecturers use sit-down strikes as a means of demanding their rights. This is because in most cases, other means of getting things done have not worked.
The public does not understand why there is not much university- government cooperation. The government policy actors have not seriously engaged university professionals in offering solutions to some of the challenges of service delivery as it is the case in Tanzania.
Government policy actors prefer to bring in people from abroad to advise on policy matters, instead of using Ugandan university professionals. If was, this would create synergies of all kinds.
On the other hand, the President has in recent years reached out to scientists at Makerere and supported innovations such as Kiira car project in the School of Engineering, business incubations in the School of Food Science and some other faculties. These activities have lately enhanced Makerere- government engagement.
However, government needs to come up with a dedicated research fund for universities in all areas.
University lecturers and professors are still not well paid compared to some other statutory bodies. It is difficult to find a sound reason why that is the case when university lecturers offer a critical service to the nation. Moreover, university lecturers are highly qualified.
The recent sit- down strike by lecturers at Makerere was misunderstood by government. It was a genuine demand for an incentive allowance – for which Lecturers serve the university beyond working hours – that is, teaching evening students from 5pm to 10pm. It had not been paid by the university from February to October 2016.
This allowance is not paid by government and there was no strike aimed at government. It is paid by the university. Protracted negotiations between representatives of staff and university authorities had been taking place.
The sit- down strike by lecturers was meant to call upon university authorities to respond to their issues, that is, “extra work should be rewarded.”
The human resource department at Makerere has never explained why a person serving extra hours should not be paid for that. At the same time, it is long overdue for the university to be restructured. Whereas several services were tendered out to private service providers, the university still has a large work force of casual workers in several places where a lot of money is spent.
Whereas kitchens in halls of residence were tendered out, the university still pays the service providers instead of government-sponsored students taking meals being given cash vouchers to pay for their food.
In other words, when lecturers demand that they want to be paid their allowance for extra teaching, the university has no answer for not paying after it has received tuition from the students. The university is accused by several stakeholders as an inefficient organisation.
Makerere should not have been closed
The closure of Makerere on November 1 was a surprise to all stakeholders, including lecturers. With some negotiations, the lecturers were willing to complete the teaching, and conducting of semester exams which were only three weeks away.
The closure has affected many stakeholders. Parents will have to pay more for hostels when their children return to complete their semester. Parents will also have to complete payment of tuition if they had not done so. Students will be coming back to revise hurriedly and may not perform well in their exams.
Lecturers could already have switched to other activities and may not be so motivated to do their teaching work, having been demoralised over time. They already feel they are not valued as government workers.
Moreover, under the Standing Orders, unless a person has been interdicted, a worker in government is entitled to full pay, even when a commission is doing its work. In any case many believe that the principal focus of the commission is not the lecturers but the university system as a whole, so, why victimise the victim?
Many university activities that promote its standing are likely to be adversely affected by the closure. For example, donor- funded programmes that have time lines are likely to suffer. The funds are likely to be taken back by the donors. Long term experiments/research done jointly between Makerere lecturers and staff in other universities are also likely to suffer. They may take years to rejuvenate.
International students studying at Makerere who are completing their semester or a short course to join another programme in their home country or other international universities are also disadvantaged.
Other stakeholders that benefits from the university are counting losses. The commercial banks where many university staff and businesses supplying Makerere have incurred loans that they might not pay are worried. In my view, the investigation by the visitation commission should have been appointed during the Christmas break, not earlier, and in my view, the closure was not necessary. A cost-benefit analysis should have been done before closure.
The author is associate professor of Political Science at Makerere.
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