Umodzi Party bemoans university withdrawals

Umodzi Party (UP) has expressed concern about the withdrawal of 316 students from Chancellor College, a constituent college of the University of Malawi (Unima), and University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar) on academic grounds.

The party fears the figure of students withdrawn out of colleges might rise as the College of Medicine, Kamuzu College of Nursing and the Polytechnic are yet to release the names of students they have withdrawn.

“It is shocking that the University of Malawi has taken such an inconsiderate decision on the students who are Malawi’s great human resources for the future without recourse to remedies that could have mitigated the effects of such action.

“Furthermore, it is more shocking to see that government has completely failed to upgrade its education systems in the country, a development which is highly fuelling the degrading standards of education,” said the party in a statement released on Monday and signed by party president Professor John Chisi.

Chisi, who was dean of medicine at the College of Medicine before he went on unpaid leave, attributed the underperformance of university students to frequent strikes in universities, lack of accommodation which has forced some students to find their own accommodation outside campus and lack of motivation for lecturers.

“UP as the only political party in the country which values education highly and plans to add the country’s number of universities from five to 50, if voted into power next year; therefore appeals to all human rights organisations to take urgent action on the matter because education is a human right,” reads the statement.

He called on government to set up an inquiry aimed at finding out if the examination was fair saying in normal circumstances, not such a huge number can fail.

Chairperson of Parliamentary Committee on Education and Human Resources, Frank Viyazyi, said his committee will sit down and find out the real causes of academic withdrawals in universities.

“As a committee, we cannot speculate as to what is causing these withdrawals. We will meet and go to the bottom of the matter,” said Viyazyi, who is MP for Nsanje North.