For three days in a row, students at the ivory tower have been striking against the tuition policy that requires private students to have paid 100% of tuition by the end of the 6th week. Well it looks like God has finally answered their prayers.
Makerere University, through a notice signed by the Vice Chancellor Prof. Ddumba Sentamu, the contested tuition policy that has hitherto gotten students’ blood boiling has been shelved until the next academic year.
According to the notice, last semester’s policy of having paid 60% by the end of 6th week has been adopted. As per that policy, a student is expected to have paid 100% tuition by the 12th week before the exams, not by the 6th week as the new policy had directed.
The announcement of this new development has potentially saved the institution from a catastrophic strike that the students had planned to stage on Monday this week. At a rally held at Mary Stuart Hall on Saturday, the contestants for the office of Guild President at Makerere spoke with one voice and said that come what may, they would lead the students in a bloody strike on Monday that is meant to push Prof. Dumba to resign from his position and further compel the University to totally do away with the 100% tuition policy. At that rally, NRM’s Ssentongo Ivan rallied is on record as having said that come Monday, the Vice Chancellor will be pushed out of office by force through strike action from the students, something that the next speakers echoed in their speeches.
