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President speaks to the Union
Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) (Chinyere)
January 11, 2010

President Speaks to the Union as the year 2010 unfolds

Revolutionary greetings to all the students, I Hope you had a wonderful festive season albeit the challenges that you continue to face in your daily lives. As the New Year unfolds, let us not forget the numerous challenges, which we encountered in the past year.

Most Teachers and Polytechnic colleges are resuming their studies today, 11 January 2009. Students continue to bear the brunt of exorbitant tuition fees. About 60% of the students in tertiary institutions still have arrears from last semester's tuition fees. 40% of them had their studies indefinitely deferred for failure to pay the steep fees and ironically most of them are from Government run institutions.

The ZINASU National Executive Council (NEC) members are embarking on a week long college visit to 30 tertiary institutions to ascertain the deep seated specific challenges facing each of the colleges. The outcome of this tour will be documented and submitted to the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education. The NEC members will also take the opportunity to mobilize students to fully participate and contribute meaningfully to the constitution making process.

Let us continue fighting fearlessly in ensuring that every prospective graduate is offered the opportunity to achieve his/her ambition. The Union would like to salute all the students who were victimized, arrested, suspended and expelled from colleges in the year 2009. Their efforts will go a long way in building a better education delivery system. To all the police, state agents, college security guards, overzealous college authorities who have contributed directly or indirectly to the abusing and victimizing of students in the past years, we want to forewarn you that the same abuses will not continue this year and we will ensure that all their names will be brought to book and justice will take its course.

It is our hope that as the Government begins to make plans for the year, it is prudent for it not to forget the plight of students. The Union will seriously lobby for an increase in the budget allocation to higher and tertiary education, which was announced by the Finance Minister, Mr. T. Biti in December 2009. The paltry USD47million is insufficient to resuscitate the decomposing education sector. Our goal is to lobby the Minister of Finance to begin working on proposals to subsidize higher education and make grants and loans available.

The year 2010 cannot make a difference without your assistance, lets put our hands together and bury our past hatchet and let us all concentrate on our national mandate and fight to regain the best education delivery system in Africa. I want to thank our partners for assisting us to hold our congress and for the continued support we have received over the years. We are geared towards addressing key fundamental issues affecting the students and also responding to key national questions, in particular the constitution making process.

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