Front PageNational News

Chanco, Poly to open Monday

University of Malawi (Unima) students from Chancellor College and The Polytechnic can now afford a smile after their lecturers and Unima Council on Wednesday reached a compromise to finally have classes for second semester open next Monday.

Polytechnic Academic Staff Committee on Welfare (Pascaw) president Abel Mwanyungwe and Chancellor College Academic Staff Union (Ccasu) vice-president Mangani Katundu confirmed the development in separate interviews yesterday.

Issued a statement on the opening: Malunga
Issued a statement on the opening: Malunga

Earlier in the day, Unima registrar Benedict Wokomaatani Malunga issued a brief statement advising students that the second semester will open on January 19 and that registration will start immediately until January 30 2015.

“Students who are allocated campus accommodation should, therefore, report on January 18 2015 and classes will commence on the 19th January 2015,” reads the statement.

Mwanyungwe said following discussions with management and for the sake of progress, the two parties resolved the issue by accepting the council’s offer.

“Members of the academic are reasonably happy with the agreement and for the sake of progress we thought this is the best offer that can be accepted at this particular time,” he said.

On his part, Mangani said Chanco academic staff ended their impasse after striking a compromise with the council following series of meetings.

“In the spirit of goodwill and for the sake of progress, we thought we can settle on the offer,” he said.

The lecturers have agreed a 19.3 percent salary increment based on their current package.

In November 2014, while negotiations were underway, they were given a 14 percent increment with arrears from June.

The students were supposed to open their second semester on January 5 2015, but they failed after their lecturers refused to teach unless their demands were resolved.

That was a day before Unima support staff resumed work after a four-week strike over demands also for salary hike which resulted in the premature closure of Chancellor College.

Last week, the University of Malawi Students Union (Umsu) gave Unima Council until January 19 to open the colleges or face unspecified action.

The ultimatum was contained in the minutes of a meeting between the students’ union representatives and Unima management held on January 8 2015 and signed by the union’s secretary general Alexious Kamangila.

 

 

Related Articles

Back to top button