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Amon Murwira

Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Correspondent
GOVERNMENT has signed 22 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with development partners for the construction of hostels and lecture rooms at the country’s higher and tertiary learning institutions, a Cabinet Minister has said.

The Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development, Professor Amon Murwira, told Senators during a Question and Answer session on Thursday that more than 100 000 university and college students do not have proper accommodation.

He said to address the infrastructure deficit, his Ministry has signed 22 MoUs with development partners since his appointment last year in December.

“We have 151 000 students in colleges, universities and of all these, only about 15 to 20 000 are in accommodation. We have a deficit of over 100 000 in student beds. Since inauguration in December, we undertook a very systematic study to find out the situation and this is the answer,” Prof Murwira said.

“I want to say that up to now, we have signed 22 MoUs with domestic and international investors between December and today, which culminated in the Investment Conference of March 9, 2018.”

The Minister said he could not reveal the amounts that have been pledged for the projects saying he would do so when finances have been poured into the projects.

Prof Murwira said his Ministry has engaged the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development to transform the MoUs into joint ventures so that construction work can begin.

He said the quality of lecture rooms and students’ accommodation has a bearing on the type of graduates being produced by institutions.

“We have always been using this word like this, if you train your children or students in a hole. When I say hole – h-o-l-e, they will think about holes, but if you train them in a splendid place, they will think of more splendid things,” Prof Murwira said.

“There is a lot of interest in making sure that we provide what we call — we are not thinking about beds and we do not want dormitories.

“We want good spaces for our students, we have a vision of what we call university cities/towns, college cities/towns and the private sector has stuck onto this and they like it.”

Prof Murwira’s sentiments come following accommodation challenges and protests that have rocked Lupane State University (LSU) with lecturers winning a court case against management over its decision to relocate them to the university’s campus.

The lecturers argued that it was irrational for the university to relocate them at short notice without providing adequate accommodation.

Already students had protested the university’s relocation exercise as it left four students squashed in rooms meant to accommodate two.

They argued that the environment is no longer conducive for studying. — @nqotshili