Makerere University students have kicked off an online petition seeking to reverse the National Council For Higher Education’s (NCHE) directive of allowing only students pursuing practical courses to report for physical lectures come 1st November.
NCHE recently ordered all higher institutions of learning to draft their reopening programmes before requesting them to favor freshers in their reopening strategies. The council further directed that only students pursuing practical programmes should be allowed to report physically on campus as a measure to reduce students’ population amid the pandemic.
Two Makerere University students representatives to Senate; Shamim Nambassa and Tumusiime Joseph have kicked off an online petition asking decision-making bodies to allow all students to report for physical lectures.
According to the petition that has so far gathered 1,577 signatures out of the required 2500, students studying Humanities and non-practical Science programs should be allowed to report back to the university for full physical learning on November 1st, 2021 as earlier communicated by President Museveni.
“Further delay of the reporting of students for full physical learning not only disenfranchises us from a full learning experience, it also cheats us of the value for money for which we pay tuition and functional fees meant for physical learning.” The petition reads in part.
“While we acknowledge online learning as an innovation in the COVID pandemic era, physical face-to-face learning remains the most effective and viable mode of knowledge transfer for the present day Makerere University.” The petition reads further.
The students have further urged the university to decentralize vaccination to halls of residence or college units as lectures go on.
“We therefore demand that the University Council and Management reverse its position on the discriminating staggered reporting for only practical-based programs on-campus and that all learners be allowed to report back on campus for physical learning to proceed effective November 2021 while government and the University continues to expedite and put in place mechanisms to ensure the safety of the learner.” The petition reads.
All higher learning institutions are expected to reopen for physical lectures (in a staggered manner) on 1st November 2021 following several months of closure. President Museveni ordered the closure of all learning institutions in June this year following a spike in COVID-19 infections and deaths.
Read the full petition here
