Back to Index

Lecturers' strike affecting quality of education at NUST
Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) (Chinyere)
April 07, 2010

The strike by lecturers at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) has a negative bearing on the quality of education received by students at the institution. The lecturers have been on a go slow since the institution opened in March which has now translated into a full blown strike. This is affecting the normal flow of lectures as the lecturers have stopped coming to work.

The NUST Lecturers Association (NLA) Spokesperson, Albert Muzvuve stated that the strike was over failure by college authorities to give them their weekly food and transport allowances pegged at USD180 on top of a monthly salary of USD200.

Last year college authorities granted lecturers at the college allowances of USD180 per week to attract back and retain qualified teaching personnel after more than 10% of the lecturers had left the college for greener pastures. These allowances cushioned the lecturers against the ever rising cost of living.

On the 1st of March 2010, the Acting Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Lindela Ndlovu announced that they would not be able to continue giving allowances to lecturers due to financial difficulties that the college was facing, this prompted the lecturers' strike.

It is the ordinary students who suffer the brunt of the indefinite industrial strike. Lectures at the college are at a standstill, students have resorted to tutoring each other in preparation of examinations that are expected to begin end of April. The quality of graduates produced at the college is under threat as students are learning without the guidance of qualified teaching personnel. This situation has a negative bearing on the quality of human resource persons produced in the country.

The ZINASU President, Joshua Chinyere will meet with the lecturers and the Vice Chancellor at the college this Thursday to try and find workable solutions that are in the best interest of all parties.

Visit the ZINASU fact sheet

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