Chanco commemorates academic freedom battle

The Chancellor College Academic Staff Union (Ccasu) will from Monday next week hold a two-day conference to commemorate the struggle for academic freedom at the campus in Zomba.

The participants, according to a press statement Ccasu released on Monday, will include international development agencies, State institutions, academic institutions, civil society organisations, religious bodies and the private sector.

Last year, Ccasu led lecturers at the college in the academic freedom struggle that lasted eight months when former Inspector General of Police Peter Mukhito summoned associate professor Blessings Chinsinga over a public policy lecture he gave in class.

In the statement, Ccasu president Sunduzwayo Madise said there is need to explore the relationship between academic freedom, on one hand, and good governance, development, and national security, on the other.

He said the struggle did not just epitomise the need to protect academic freedom for quality education, but also animated Malawians to resist tyranny and advance the respect, protection and progressive realisation of human rights.

Reads the statement: “That experience further underlined the need to share knowledge and strategies to consolidate gains on the fight for academic freedom and strengthen vigilance against possible threats to academic freedom and other human rights.”

The conference is aimed at creating an open forum on the challenging relationship between development, academic freedom, governance and national security, among others.

The late president Bingu wa Mutharika bowed down to pressure and reinstated lecturers that were dismissed during the impasse and assured the staff of academic freedom.