Makerere lecturers suspend strike

Nov 04, 2014

Makerere University lecturers in the College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS) have called off their two-week long sit down strike after the university management cleared their allowance arrears amounting to sh300m.

By Innocent Anguyo

Makerere University lecturers in the College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS) have called off their two-week long sit down strike after the university management cleared their allowance arrears amounting to sh300m.

According to Dr. Muhammad Kiggundu, the Chairperson of the Makerere University Academic Staff Association (MUSASA), the CoCIS dons had declined to teach for the last two weeks over failure of the university management to clear the arrears accrued in the 2013/2014 financial year.

The University Management was Tuesday  forced to mobilise the money on short notice after students of CoCIS went on strike, decrying the lack of lectures. The students numbering hundreds chanted in unison: “we want lectures; we have paid all our fees.”

According to Lillian Aber, the vice President of the students’ guild, the two-hour demonstration which began at 9: 00am and ended at 11:00am was peaceful.

“The students just mobolised and went to the Main Building (Administration Block) to find out why they were not being taught,” explained Aber.

The students’ demonstration prompted the university management to mobolise sh300m which was subsequently used to clear arrears of the staff of the college who largely comprise part-timers.

“Most of the teaching staff of the college work on part time basis and they so much rely on their allowances. They needed the money and that is why they were on a sit down strike,” said Kiggundu.

The decision to clear the dons’ allowance sum unpaid in the last financial year was reached yesterday, in a meeting between the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Finance and Administration), Prof Barnabas Nawangwe and the students who demanded immediate resumption of tutorials.

“The lecturers should be able resume classes now that they have been paid. We urge all students of the college to return to class immediately,” said Kiggundu




 

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});