As the industrial action by public universities’ non teaching staff protesting low wages eats into another uncertain week, it has drawn mixed reactions from students.
While some continue to express their displeasure towards the strike, others prefer to identify with the striking staff’s cause.
While some find it unfair that the staff are striking at a critical time when the students are supposed to be reporting back to campus for the start of a new academic year, others find the entire motivation for the strike unjustifiable.
At Makerere University, standing at the non-teaching staff’s side of the fence in support of the strike is the students’ 81st guild leader Bala David.
Arguing that theirs is a valid cause as they play a cardinal role in keeping the university functioning, Bala asserts that the non-teaching staff deserve to work under acceptable and dignified conditions of service just like other workers, for they too have human rights which need to be protected and respected.
On the other side of the fence is one student who feels differently about the whole situation. To that end, he has penned a letter to Campusbee, expressing his discontent towards some of the non-teaching he has had the [dis]pleasure of interfacing with.
“It is not news that Makerere University non-teaching staff are on strike. Their demand is well-known: a pay rise.The question, however, is do they deserve a payrise?
Being a student at Makerere University, I can tell you that service delivery at the university is lacking.
The process of registration for an identification card is stressful enough. Students make long queues early in the morning often times chopping lectures while some resort to bribery in order to jump the queues with the hope of having their photographs taken for an Identification card.
Walk into any office and you are welcomed by angry-looking secretaries and receptionists who are often times rude and unwilling to help.
Before non teaching staff are given a payrise, their jobs should be audited and their performance in the past years should be assessed.
The non teaching staff should first realise to whom they owe the duty of care to. It is to the students. Students have paid tuition, the non teaching staff ought to be kind and welcoming to the students.
Yes they may be wanting a payrise, but many of them should sit back and reflect on the quality of services they have delivered to us. Honestly speaking, through my experience with non teaching staff, their service delivery is still wanting.
Perhaps they should first reapply for their jobs to give room for competent people to apply. The bureaucracy in Makerere University should end.
What we have right now is a total mess. A process that is supposed to be simple such as getting an identification card is a horror.
A colleague of mine once came back frustrated because the registrar of a certain faculty had decided to give out only 5 exam permits that day yet there was a line waiting outside the office.
As the non teaching staff in Makerere University strike, they should ask themselves how they have performed during their tenure of service. Is the quality of work they offer worth the payrise they demand?
Late last week, a communication from Government was made to the effect that the striking staff’s wages will be increased starting next financial year, in default.
Preferring to take the news with a pinch of salt, the striking staff’s leadership promised to communicate their next course of action today.
Meanwhile, students at public universities continue to pray fervently that the situation normalises so that they can resume their studies after nearly two weeks of an extended holiday at home. Fingers crossed.
