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Commission can solve Unima challenges—Chisi

President of the Umodzi Party (UP) John Chisi has said it is imperative for government to institute a commission of inquiry into numerous issues surrounding University of Malawi (Unima).

Chisi was speaking in an exclusive interview on Wednesday pertaining to circumstances surrounding the current strike at Chancellor College (Chanco) that has seen the institution fail to open for the 2017/18 academic calendar.

Chisi: Unima is stagnating

He said an inquiry would help rectify long standing problems within Unima that has resulted in its stagnation.

“Mediocre recruitment has been the hallmark at the university because people have held positions without being qualified. In-house politics of the university have resulted in the stagnation of the university. A commission of inquiry would expose a lot more because there is a lot that has transpired or has been transpiring in Unima,” he said.

Recently, calls have been made by education activists for the unbundling of colleges that are under Unima into autonomous universities.

The activists have argued that giving autonomy to Unima colleges would resolve long standing governance and bureaucratic challenges currently being faced in the colleges.

One such activist, Benedicto Kondowe, who is director of the Civil Society Education Coalition (Csec) says unbundling Unima is the right path to take to do away with bureaucratic arrangements that impede the growth of the institution.

The sentiments by Chisi and Kondowe come at a time when concerned parents and guardians whose children are studying at Chanco have called on the striking lecturers to be replaced with those who are willing to go back to class for the betterment of the students.

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