Protesting students demand answers

HUNDREDS of disgruntled students protested at Thekwini FET College's Asherville Campus in Sydenham on Friday morning, after the college management failed to respond to a memorandum students presented to it at a meeting in Umbilo on 28 January.

Issues raised in the memorandum related to racism, bursaries and also questioned the qualifications of certain lecturers in some subjects. Students also claimed to have no text books and said they had had less than two months worth of lectures since the beginning of the year.

Students approached Berea Mail with a cry for help after management failed to reply to their memorandum or address any of their concerns.

“The conversation with management started last year and the memorandum was the next step to get something done. We have attended no more than two months of lectures this year so far. Some students have exams coming up next week and haven't finished their modules,” said a student who asked not to be named.

Central to the complaints by the students are allegations of racism and the fact that incidents are not being dealt with at any of the college campuses. The lack of text books is also of major concern with students claiming they have had no text books since last year.

“There is one very racist teacher at Springfield campus who makes fun of us black students and has said we won't finish the semester without falling pregnant! During registration, you never see a person of a different race standing in the long queues, but when we get to class, they are there. We aren't even allowed to use the computers as we have been told we will give them viruses,” said another angry student.

A student also claimed that the text books in the library were out of date and not in line with the new curriculum. “One of the lecturers told us to Google things, but how can we do that when we are not allowed to use the computers?” they asked.

Funding is a huge concern for the students who explained that they receive funding at the end of the year, whereas they are aware of students at other FET colleges who receive funding monthly.

“We can't get full funding and can't cover our transport costs. Accommodation is another problem. Our res, which is attached to the Asherville Campus building, is being rented out to UKZN students. Why are we not allowed to rent there? There is a perfectly good bus parked on the premises, but when we asked why it wasn't being used to help transport students, we were told there was no one to drive it,” said a student from the Asherville campus.

The students said they had organised a protest at the Asherville campus last week, but police had used rubber bullets and teargas on them. They said a hole had to be cut in a fence outside the campus so that they could flee from the police.

“We are not making any unreasonable requests on management, we just want answers,” they said.

Berea Mail approached the Department of Higher Education and Training for comment on the allegations made by the students. Spokesperson for the department, Khaye Nkwanyana said the department had now been made aware of the issues and he had assigned the matter to senior department managers to address.

“There does seem to be some instability, which will be looked into,” he said.