Back to Index

International Students Day
Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU)
November 17, 2007

On November 17th 1939 students' resistance in the streets of Prague against Nazi occupation inspired the establishment of an anti-Nazi student's coalition. In 1941 November 17th was declared International Students Day by the International Students Council in London which became the starting point of the founding of the International Union of Students - IUS.

We will never forget the Nazi atrocities.

Today , we, the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) join the rest of the world in celebrating the International Students Day. We applaud the world leaders for the global improvement in adult literacy rate.

According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, the global female and male literacy rate was 42.6% in 1990 and it is currently estimated at 55.2%. For the females, it has been also a success story, the literacy rate was 38% in 1997 and it is currently estimated at 45.9%.

However, the deepening poverty, increasing debt burden, the HIV and AIDS pandemic and ravaging internal conflicts on the African continent has denied many children, both the right to education and the right to development. Furthermore, acute democratic deficits, bad corporate governance and mismanagement of economy in the sub-Saharan Africa countries has militated against our right to education, a multifaceted birth-right.

The war in Durfur region has caused humankind untold suffering. It has destroyed the whole educational infrastructure in Southern Sudan; the conflict in Northern Uganda has seen many children and students being turned into child soldiers. The Lord Resistance Army (LRA) must respect the right to education and stop destroying the future of Uganda.

Privatisation and commercialisation of education in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Malawi and Kenya has resulted in untold student unrests. The brutal dictatorships in Burma, Belarus, Pakistan and Zimbabwe have denied many students access to education. Today, many students in Pakistan are locked up in prisons after General Musharraf declared a State of Emergency in Pakistan.

Today, more than 31.5% of prospective students in Zimbabwe are out of school as a direct result of Mr. Robert Mugabe's misrule. The year-to-year Inflation is pegged at more than 14 700% in Zimbabwe. Five of the Ten student leaders at the University of Zimbabwe are on suspension. Four students were banned for life last year. The names are Hentchel Mavuma, Mfundo Mlilo, Collen Chibango and Wellington Mahohoma.

Barely two weeks ago, more than 12 students indefinitely suspended from the Great Zimbabwe University, 3 student leaders at National University of Science and Technology (NUST) were suspended for 3 years. One of them, Mehluli Dube is facing treason charges. His only crime is advocating for Mugabe to step down. At Chinhoyi University of Technology and Mutare Polytechnic College, student leaders were denied accommodation on the premise that they are not the members of the ruling party, ZANU PF. The list is endless.

Three students have died as a result of the ill-advised and thoroughly thoughtless government directive to close down all the Halls of Residence at the University of Zimbabwe.

However, we call upon all world leaders, Robert Mugabe included, to respect the right to education as a human right. We advocate for the promotion, protection and observance of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The flagrant violations of academic rights and other fundamental freedoms in countries such as Zimbabwe must come to an end.

We also call upon the world leaders to respect the right to education as clearly enunciated in the 1996 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural, article 13 and 14, the Banjul Declaration article 17 (1), Universal declaration on Human Rights chapter 26 (1) and the right to development as captured in the Declaration on the Right to Development in 1986 and the Vienna Declaration and the Programme of Action in 1993.

The world leaders must make sure that Globalisation bridges the gap between the poor and the rich. The international economic systems must be reconfigured to allow the third world countries realise the right to development and the right to education. More resources must be channelled to education and the related development work and not to the manufacturing of nuclear bombs and war tankers.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP