Friday, 9th October, 2015, There is a lot of activity at the College of Medicine as I write. Spaces being cleared, cleaning done, shades constructed and a whole lot of other things. I am told it is the celebration of the University of Malawi's 50 years of existence. How awesome! 50 years is a whole lot.
I must say that I will not be part of the celebrations. At least not directly, because the very time His Excellency (all my respect to him) will be driving in will be the time I will be leaving for my weekend call (let's call it hospital duty and yes, we do work on Saturdays as students). Can't complain, though. At least I will be one of the people who will be representing the few hundred people who still do school work on weekends while the rest celebrate.
On the other hand, I am looking at this as the main event of the Jubillee celebrations. I heard about the UNIMA at 50 tree planting before. Good initiative. I just don't remember why I missed that one.
I am told that there will be a lot to showcase at the event. I am also told that there will be a parade of the alumni and some UNIMA choir. That makes me wish I were there to witness the whole thing, but on the other hand I am thinking that it is okay not to be for some reason.
You might call me names for this but I think we don't have much to point to as we celebrate the golden jubilee. There are two reasons for which I say this and I will get into that.
The first reason for which I say the celebration is not worth the attention is the state of the university itself as we speak. There is a lot that has taken place in the 50 years that the university has existed. Colleges have been added and taken out. The university has seen a lot of people graduate into various fields and many programs have been introduced. So much we can talk about. My concern is, however, that most of the reforms and restructuring exercises that have taken place have not brought about progress in the university.
The first issue that comes to mind is that of the way in which colleges in UNIMA are admitting students. The people responsible rightly saw that there was a need for more people to be enrolled into the university and to graduate for the development. What wasn't done right was the reform that was done to achieve this. Interestingly enough, nowadays students are being enrolled based on classroom and not bed space. Result? Students from COM at Mount Pleasant and those fro. Chanco in a ghetto called Chikanda. How convenient that is, all of us already know.
And then comes the issue of food. For some reason this too was privatised and the end result is students either not getting enough money to keep them through the month and getting the allowances late. At some point in one college people wanted to mix up this money with fees resulting into a demonstration that left the school closed. That is the UNIMA we have at 50 years.
The other issue is that of infrastructure. Truth be told we are lagging behind when it comes to this. Most of our structures in the university are hardly maintained and many facilities are in a poor state. The very structures that were supposed to be the landmarks in the colleges, talk of the Lecture Theatre at the mighty Polytechnic and the Library at Chanco, are not in the most desirable state you would want them to be. I shouldn't talk about the already "not enough" hostels in the colleges. While the students bear part of the blame for not taking care of their own things, lack of maintenance has been a main player in this situation. A friend of mine once showed me a picture of the university in Taiwan and he told me it is from there that the Chancellor college design was taken. The fact that the university in question looks sparkling new while its little sister called Chanco is in a bad state leaves a lot of questions than answers.
Having talked about the state of the university, I should point out that the other reason the celebration doesn't seem very necessary is the impact the university and its graduates have had on this country. People have been trained for years in the university; graduating after finishing and I do not think that we have seen enough of the intellect translate into material development, which I guess the aim of the training in the long run is.
Before I talk about how graduates have failed to give back to the country, it is better that I point out how they have failed to contribute to the very institution that trained them. Most of the graduates benefited from a loan in as far as fees are concerned, in the name of being needy students. Probably someone would say that the university should have put up a tracking mechanism for the loan repayment. Good excuse. On the other hand, I think we have been irresponsible with our university and that is why we find it in the state that it is. I am saying this because I am inclined to believe that by design this whole loan for needy students thing was meant to be a self- sustaining revolving fund with little, if any external boosters.
Now to the big one. We have seen a lot of people from different fields graduate with so little added to their fields. So many economists in both the private and public sectors and a crumbling economy. So many electrical engineers and we continue to be on daily doses of blackouts. Some fields of course have shown a lot of progress but with the people who are supposed to be experts in the many fields of study in our university we are supposed to see more than we have achieved now.
Well. That whole writing was for the love of complaining. I do not suggest that we cancel the celebrations or close the university. What I would call on is a moment of reflection. As students, administrators and stakeholders, there is a lot that can be done to improve both the process and outcome of the training that the government is investing in the training of the many that are getting through the corridors of mother UNIMA.
Fellow intellectuals, as we sail through the university, we need to understand that we have an obligation to give back both to our university and to our country at large. There is more to the skills we are attaining than just bringing food on our table and clothing on our bodies. We need to think of how we can use the knowledge mother UNIMA is bestowing upon us to develop our motherland. It is with these changes that we will celebrate a progressive century of existence otherwise we might have nothing but failure to celebrate about come 2065.
The university organized an essay competition on the reflection of the 50 years of existence and the possible ways of making the university better. Intellectuals wrote and I hope those views will be taken into account as we move from the maintenance management of our dear UNIMA to bringing in innovations that will work in propelling the University of Malawi forward. There is a hope for a better UNIMA.
Happy 50th birthday UNIMA and may we all work and live to see you be what you are meant to be; an institution of excellence.
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