Makerere should set priorities right
Oct 24, 2007
MAKERERE University secretary, Sam Akorimo, told The New Vision on October 23 that the university had diverted sh600m meant for Internet services to resurfacing its potholed roads. He said this was because the Government had refused to consider the university in its road-repair programme ahead of CH
Don Wanyama
MAKERERE University secretary, Sam Akorimo, told The New Vision on October 23 that the university had diverted sh600m meant for Internet services to resurfacing its potholed roads. He said this was because the Government had refused to consider the university in its road-repair programme ahead of CHOGM.
How is fixing potholes a priority compared to the Internet services in an institution of higher learning? Is this the same institution that recently dropped in rankings because its research output was invisible to the outside world? How then will its research be publicised when even the primary tool of research is being phased out?
The students’ dean recently decreed that students should stop using computers in their halls of residence. Some top administrators in Makerere are just out of touch with the realities of the modern age. They do not know that in the 21st century, the primary machine that drives scholarship is research and that the computer (internet) is primary to this.
I believe that many of the decisions are made out of pure selfishness. Majority of the administrators drive while most students don’t. I can bet that over 90% of both the undergraduate and post-graduate students are interested in having the internet run because they use it in research for coursework and dissertation.
Akorimo argues that fixing the nine roads would cost sh1.4b yet getting the internet to run demands sh600m. Instead of the nine roads, you could fix five and put the rest of the money to the internet.
For a university where accountability has become a real problem, this venture can not be embraced without questions.
Whereas it is easier for the user to confirm that the sh600m was paid to the Internet service providers, accountability for the sh1.4b can only be in form of paperwork provided by the accounting officers. Is someone leading the university to where the recent fence project ended?
Makerere University needs smooth roads but academic-related services should be given priority. The CHOGM delegates we are dying to impress would not realise that university roads are poor but they would laugh if they learnt that the university lacks Internet services.
The writer is a journalist
MAKERERE University secretary, Sam Akorimo, told The New Vision on October 23 that the university had diverted sh600m meant for Internet services to resurfacing its potholed roads. He said this was because the Government had refused to consider the university in its road-repair programme ahead of CHOGM.
How is fixing potholes a priority compared to the Internet services in an institution of higher learning? Is this the same institution that recently dropped in rankings because its research output was invisible to the outside world? How then will its research be publicised when even the primary tool of research is being phased out?
The students’ dean recently decreed that students should stop using computers in their halls of residence. Some top administrators in Makerere are just out of touch with the realities of the modern age. They do not know that in the 21st century, the primary machine that drives scholarship is research and that the computer (internet) is primary to this.
I believe that many of the decisions are made out of pure selfishness. Majority of the administrators drive while most students don’t. I can bet that over 90% of both the undergraduate and post-graduate students are interested in having the internet run because they use it in research for coursework and dissertation.
Akorimo argues that fixing the nine roads would cost sh1.4b yet getting the internet to run demands sh600m. Instead of the nine roads, you could fix five and put the rest of the money to the internet.
For a university where accountability has become a real problem, this venture can not be embraced without questions.
Whereas it is easier for the user to confirm that the sh600m was paid to the Internet service providers, accountability for the sh1.4b can only be in form of paperwork provided by the accounting officers. Is someone leading the university to where the recent fence project ended?
Makerere University needs smooth roads but academic-related services should be given priority. The CHOGM delegates we are dying to impress would not realise that university roads are poor but they would laugh if they learnt that the university lacks Internet services.
The writer is a journalist