Mthashana students “take to the streets”

Mthashana FET College students protested on Thursday, January 23. These angry students said that they were sick and tired of the poor management of the college and they saw no other way except to put down pens and take to the streets.
The students said that they felt this was the only way their voices were to be heard as their numerous complaints had been to no avail.
A march was held in April last year wherein the students presented a memorandum of their grievances to the administrator of the college, Mr Russon.
The grievances included;
The computer laboratories that were out of order.
The shortage of textbooks.
The fact that they did not have a resource centre.
Certificates that were not being handed to students.
The students say that these matters were not resolved and instead they feel that the situation is becoming worse.
Although many young people were encouraged by the Department of Education to enrol in FET colleges, the students say that a certain system was set out to cut down the original number of students from 8000 to 4000. According to the President of the Student Board at the college, Sanele Kunene the implementation of this system would mean that atleast 4000 students whether new or returning, would not have a place at the college. This would also mean that certain lecturers would be without jobs.
Other issues such as 4 computer classes that all had defective computers and the promise of 64 classes being added to one of the campuses in order to accommodate more students which was never kept are among the major complaints from these students.
According to the College Administrator Dr R Russon, only three computer labs are ineffective whilst the rest are in working order. These three labs are said to be multi-seat and have to authenticate in a student server that is based in Centurion. New equipment was installed and needed to be reconfigured but the labs are expected to be up and running by Wednesday, January 29.
With regards to the books, the administrator said that books had been ordered and they would be issued to students after all the formalities at the college were completed. The only subject that was being affected by the issue of books was ODP Level 2 where the syllabus changed and the new textbook was still in print. He did say however, these students were currently using old textbooks as they were still relevant.
On the enrolment issues, Dr Russon said that they as a college were also facing the national issue of having many applicants but very little space to accommodate all these students. As a result, their emphasis has shifted to that of academic worthiness in order to avoid a situation where public funds are spent on students who are not ready to enter a college which he regarded as having in the past resulted in high failure rates.
Based on the budget allocated to the college, only a specific number of students can be admitted. Over enrolment as was the case in the past is said to have led to severe cash flow problems for colleges and this has since been discouraged. They now have to work within a budget.
He concluded in saying that they were currently looking at introducing weekend classes to accommodate the extra students. These students though, will have to pay for their studies so that the college would be able to pay the salaries of extra lecturers and overtime