By ADRIAN MWANZA
UNZA should allow students to sit for their end of year examinations rather than forbid and deregister them as doing so has negative impacts, says former Higher Education Minister Professor Nkandu Luo.
Prof Luo, who was also former President Edgar Lungu’s running mate in the August 12 elections, said that a tiff had arisen between UNZA and students over the institution’s move not to allow students to write their examinations for failure to meet financial obligations.
The students are racing against time because the examinations start in two weeks’ time, so those who have not finished paying tuition fees are at risk of not writing including those that had paid 75 percent of the fees. UNZA Vice Chancellor Prof Luke Mumba insisted that the students knew the procedure and that the institution had been very flexible by coming up with a payment plan that would assist even those who were less privileged.
Prof Luo however said that the best thing to do was to allow them to write but withhold the results as it would give the parents time to look around for money. She said she opposed the move to stop students from writing but ensured that they sat for the examinations but withhold the results. “I personally discouraged such a move and at one point even counselled the UNZA Vice Chancellor to enable students sit for their examinations, but the problem is that people politicised the matter and went on a campaign to demonise me,” Prof Luo said.
She said that there were many ways universities could raise money apart from concentrating on school fees. Prof Luo said it would have a psychological impact on students who for example had been in school for seven years only to be told that they had been deregistered in the final year.
Prof Luo said during her tenure she ensured that students from all the major universities were given an opportunity to get a bursary and not the normal monopoly of UNZA and CBU.
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