Makerere University fees petition that served me a jail term of nine months

 

30^th September 2009

Honourable Speaker,

Parliament of Uganda.

Dear Sir,

RE: PETITION AGAINST UNIVERSITY TUITION INCREMENT

Mr. Speaker Sir, we students of Makerere University, appalled by the recent phenomenal, unprecedented and uncalled for fees increment, do hereby petition you on the subject matter on the following grounds;

1. The increment was made abruptly hence leading many admitted students to drop out of the courses they had hitherto been admitted to and were sure they would pay for by the time of application and admission.

2. The increment was too huge to the magnitude of more than 100% for some courses. For instance, Bachelor of Law tuition was hiked from 600,000 (six hundred thousand) shillings to 1,260,000 (one million two hundred sixty thousand) shillings, hence an increment of 126%! If one added functional fees and bank charges the total amount paid comes to 1,808,500 (one million eight hundred eight thousand five hundred) shillings per semester.  Thus, although the media have always reported 40%, that is misleading, 40% applies to the courses whose tuition was least hiked. Honourable Speaker Sir, even if the increment was 40%, it is still too much.

3. With the 40% increment, courses such as Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, Bachelor of Pharmacy, Bachelor of Dental Surgery, Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Bachelor of Science in Medical Radiography have had their tuition hiked to the tune of 1,344,000 per semester. If one added the functional fees and bank charges, the whole figure comes to 1,893,000 (one million eight hundred ninety three thousand) shillings per semester. For a course like Bachelor of Science in Speech and Language Therapy, although there was no increment, 1.5m tuition alone for one semester is too much because added to functional fees; the whole figure comes to 2,549,000 (two million, five hundred fourty nine thousand) shillings per semester. These figures exclude accommodation, meals, transport and many other scholastic needs such as photocopying, typing, printing, textbooks, exercise books, pens, among others. If one is to lead a peasantry lifestyle, he/she will spend not less than 3,000,000 (3 million) per semester on a Bachelor of Law course. For Medicine and Pharmacy courses, the figure is far beyond this. With this increment, the government will find it difficult to convince many that it indeed is interested in promoting courses that are critical to national development. We know for a fact that our country has inadequate doctors as most of the few trained run out for greener pastures. It is interesting to find out that the government is putting in place disincentives through hiked fees. The courses mentioned herein are just a tip of the iceberg. Otherwise all courses are unaffordable at least to the poor and middle income earners.

4. The increment is not uniform across all public universities. Whereas the least hiked course attracted a 40% increment while some other courses attracted a more than 100% increment for Makerere University, in other public universities, the increment is more or less negligible.

5. The inflation argument doesn’t hold water because functional fees were not increased and it is only tuition that was increased. But also, assuming the issue was inflation that has accumulated over the years, it makes no sense that students that were admitted in 2009-2010 academic year should bear that huge burden. Logically, there should have been a gradual increment of not more than five percent over the years.

6. The increment affects everyone directly or indirectly including Honourable Members of Parliament and Ministers. If one is not a student, they are parents or guardians. If not, they have siblings, neighbours or relatives and if one has none, they are potential students or guardians to the university. Therefore, this is a national issue not merely the concern of a few people.

7. We have reliably learnt that the President sanctioned the increment because somebody duped him that fees increment will curb the problem of Lecturers’ strikes. We know it will instead aggravate the problem because majority of Makerere University Lecturers are Pan Africanists who embrace the Ubuntu philosophy which entails selflessness, compassion, sympathy, empathy and social justice. But also they value education so much because they know it is the surest means of societal transformation. Accordingly, many Lecturers if not all of them have many dependants including their biological children. In fact, Lecturers that we have talked to are planning to demand a 200% increment of their remuneration in order to meet the mind boggling hiked fees fares of up to 126%. Otherwise, it will be pitiable and despicable if Makerere University Professors fail to sponsor their children for the courses of their dream. Thus, the solution to Lecturers’ strikes lies in government increasing their salaries and remitting adequate funds to the university to make academia an attractive profession. Otherwise, what is the justification of paying millions to project officers in ministries and directors in parastatals and pay university Lecturers peanuts? In fact, don’t get shocked when you see our Lecturers running to juicy government bodies such as National Planning Authority (NPA), Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), and National Social Security Fund (NSSF) among others. Remember, the directors in these agencies are not in any way better qualified than University dons. Government is duty bound to ensure better standards for Lecturers and indeed all other workers but doesn’t have to raise fees to do that for it hurts the peasants which for years the NRM government has purported to protect and liberate out of their poverty.

8. Although we are students, our guardians and parents are workers in the private or public sectors while others are subsistence farmers. Accordingly, the phenomenal tuition increment must necessarily lead to a commensurate increment in salaries and wages and agricultural products across the board. It is ironic that government in the current budget increased civil service salaries by a paltry 5% and went ahead to increase tuition to that magnitude as if civil servants’ children shouldn’t access higher education!

9. Mr. Speaker Sir, we are pretty sure that most of the brainy students that were admitted dropped out because they couldn’t raise the new hiked fees. This in the very short run will deny our country the talents that would transform this country because they are unable to raise high education fares. For a course whose tuition is 1260,000, if one added functional fees and bank charges the total amount paid comes to 1808500 (one million eight hundred eight thousand five hundred) shillings. This figure excludes accommodation, meals, transport and many other scholastic needs such as photocopying, typing, printing, textbooks, exercise books, pens, among others. If one is to lead a peasantry lifestyle, he/she will spend not less than 3,000,000 (3 million) per semester on a course. Otherwise, ordinarily even 4million may not suffice!

10. How many of Uganda’s teachers, policemen, prison warders and indeed public servants have the wherewithal to raise these colossal fees for their children?
11.  The right to education is enshrined in Article 30 of the 1995 Uganda constitution. But also the international human rights instruments that Uganda has ratified stress the right to education and emphasise that higher education shall be accessible on the basis of merit. These include inter alia Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948), Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1966), Articles 28 and 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC, 1989), Article 10 of the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, 1979), Articles 1, 2 and 5 of the International Covenant on Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination, 1969) and UNESCO Convention Against Discrimination in Education.

Accordingly, education is a fundamental human right but also that it is a critical tool for social transformation is axiomatic. Thus, as the adage goes, “those who are born in gutters don’t die in gutters”, the poor need to be assured that they too are citizens and not subjects in this country. This assurance can only be through ensuring that sons and daughters of peasants are not locked out of higher education as only and only education can put the poor and the rich at an equal footing.

12. It is clear that government sponsorship is virtually a preserve of the children of the rich who go through first world schools. But never be deceived that they are more brilliant and more potentially useful than their counterparts from third world and rural schools. Accordingly, fees increment exposes the poor to double tragedy and reinforces the vicious cycle of poverty. Surprisingly, the government says it is committed to prosperity for all whose components are health for all, wealth for all and education for all! We pray that government puts its money where its mouth is.

13. The solution to Lecturers’ strikes and the Universities’ financial and academic woes cannot and will never be solved by inhuman and heartless fees hikes. Rather, the practical solution lies in government remitting adequate funds to the universities including research funds. And the question of lack of funds is neither here nor there because we have seen non priority sectors such as Ministry of Defence and State House get supplementary funding. In fact, the reason as to why the once “Harvard of Africa” is declining academically is largely because lecturers have been pushed into consultancy research in order to make ends meet. If the government was remitting funds to the University for Research and paying Lecturers well they would concentrate on academic research and not consultancy research which is inimical to academic advancement.

14. Fees hike will inevitably widen the already existing regional imbalances. It is clear that although there are some regions which are economic power houses, there are also regions that are wallowing in despicable levels of poverty. The irony is that the economic power houses almost monopolise government scholarships because they have ability to sponsor their children in the grade A schools. With tuition hike they will still have the monopoly of access to the revered university education!
15. The heartless and inhuman tuition hike has already vindicated Professor Mamdani’s book titled “Scholars in the Market Place”. It has surely portrayed Makerere University as a commercial centre and not a place of knowledge generation, knowledge synthesis, knowledge reproduction and knowledge dissemination. Yet these are the touchstones of any University worth its salt.

16. Finally, this position is not sacrosanct and we pray that it is reversed in the interest of the common good and the good of our country. Those who have already paid will top up next semester. We must take note that public universities are state institutions which must be run by the state and not money generated from peasants majority of whom form the bulk of the parents and are the wretched of the earth to use Franz Fanon’s coinage. Remember we are citizens and not subjects in this country and to our members of parliament, take note that we are voters, our parents are, our neighbours and relatives are. The prohibitive fares for all the courses are antithetical to the prosperity for all slogan of the National Resistance Movement Party/government and they are a harbinger for deeper poverty in the long run. Whoever is at the centre of blocking the poor but intelligent the right to access education is an architect of underdevelopment. You never can tell, the people denied access to education would be vanguards of fighting moral poverty which has tied us and prevented us from moving forward and in our view manifests in all sorts of corruption hence reproducing more poverty. As we build for the future! For God and our country!

CC: President of the Republic of Uganda

CC: Chairperson, Social Affairs Committee

CC: Leader of opposition

CC: Minister of Education

CC: Uganda Human Rights Commission

CC: Vice Chancellor, Makerere University

CC: Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

CC: Human Rights Network (Uganda)

CC: Academic Registrar, Makerere University

CC: Makerere University Students Guild

CC: Media Houses