Opinion / Columnist
NUST 2013 Intake: An example of a divisive outcome
20 May 2013 at 10:51hrs | Views
I first came across the Bulawayo based National University of Science and Technology (NUST) 2013 prospective intake list quite by accident, via an e-mail from a horrified associate. The list which also appears on the university's website via the following link, lists all the applicants who have been accepted for the university's next intake later this year.
It's a list that probably looks like any other unless looked at from the perspective of someone that hails from the university's geographic home, the city of Bulawayo and understands the history of that institution. It is no secret just how much of a struggle it was for the city to eventually have that university built there by the government. The university was built in the midst of numerous outcries about the relative under development not only of that city but the entire Matabeleland region as well. In fact, even today one can see evidence of a university still under construction from the Johannesburg highway, years after it opened its doors.
In writing this article I will concede that there is probably no absolute method of evaluating and verifying whether or not the university's intake actually does represent its local surrounding population demographic profile but, the obvious conclusion one draws just by looking at the prima facie evidence, the surnames of the successful applicants, is that it doesn't. The enrolment list doesn't just fail to do so narrowly but, by multiples of country miles. I must also emphasise that this article does not in any way seek to advocate for the creation of an ethnically exclusive institution but rather a more representative one.
I am also fully aware that even daring to view the issue from such a perspective in Zimbabwe is somewhat risky lest one attracts labels and yet it's the elephant in the Zimbabwean room. Almost everyone that I know regardless of ethnicity, in their private circles recognizes or talks about it from that very perspective virtually all the time. I know this due to my mixed heritage. Perhaps it is also time we accepted the obvious that this is indeed the reality of how different ethnic groups evaluate whether or not a country respects their rights to be.
Be that as it may, if anyone holds a different view with respect to the prima facie evidence around the NUST enrolment and is certain that it does represent a fair spread of ethnicities across the country and province as a whole, I would challenge them to prove it. It must surely represent both country and province alike and in my view currently doesn't. Apart from other well documented historical cases, this is a perfect example of the kinds of complaints emanating from the region that cause ethnic fissures to widen, over and over again.
Just to bring some context and perspective, by comparison, it would be unfathomable that the student list at Universitat de Barcelona in Spain would fail to have more than 3% Catalan names and surnames on it. There would be an outcry, not so much because Catalans are ethnocentric, racist and do not like the Spaniards but because they too want to enjoy the benefits of the facilities in their midst. In other words they too want to feel a part of their country.
Most interestingly though when you speak to many people in Matabeleland, there is also a reasonable level of understanding that this is but an outcome of a greater underlying root cause and perhaps not always the fault of the enrolling institution. A large measure of this problem lies in the insufficient provision infrastructure to enable the required numbers of students from the region to compete for these places. One sub region which is often cited with respect to this issue is the uMzingwane Constituency (an area which also includes Esigodini) which by my last count had no more than two genuine science high schools, Falcon College and Mzingwane High School none of which even accommodated girls, to make matters worse from a gender perspective. Mawabeni and Umzinyathini are really not worth mentioning in that regard due to a historical as well as current paucity or complete absence of facilities. The odds of you ever meeting a female Dr Ncube from eSibomvu that studied at NUST are next to naught.
The high density townships of Bulawayo still have more or less the same number of high schools built during the colonial era that have some semblance of teaching science meaningfully namely the likes of Mzilikazi, Mpopoma, St Columbus High Schools and possibly Luveve etc. In the former low density high schools, you are really speaking of the private schools among them Christian Brothers College (CBC), The Bulawayo Girls College, The Bulawayo Convent and Petra High School. The rest of the other public schools or former Group A or mixed race schools are shells of their former selves. In many instances, there aren't even any functional or sufficiently stocked laboratories to deliver a meaningful science education even to the most committed student.
Although the rest of the country has been affected by the recent and current economic upheavals, the impact on what should be a significant portion of NUST's local feeder network has been most profound as one can see from not only this year's intake but the last few years' as well. It's a problem whose symptoms many are only seeing now but has in fact been in the making for a very long time. Some have argued that the root cause of this is in turn Zimbabwe's national politics.
Many experts have also highlighted the problem of not ensuring that children are taught in their mother tongue during their formative years. Because Matabeleland is home to no less than fourteen ethnic groups, it is affected the most by this problem. I have mentioned in the past how I once taught in rural Beitbridge, in a predominantly Sotho speaking area where the kids in a primary school were taught Ndebele by Shona speaking teachers. Experts say it takes such children a significantly longer length of time to catch up to their peers as far the teaching of other general and scientific subject matter is concerned.
It is my view therefore that this would be one of the greatest challenges requiring the serious and single minded attention of whoever is elected both to central government and the soon to be devolved provincial assemblies in the upcoming elections per, the incoming constitution. Unless the problem is addressed we risk the perpetuation of the perceptions of marginalization, divisions and ethnic tensions and this is the last thing we need right now. The recognition of our richness in diversity is what binds is in unity.
---------------
Lovemore Fuyane is a Zimbabwean who resides in South Africa
It's a list that probably looks like any other unless looked at from the perspective of someone that hails from the university's geographic home, the city of Bulawayo and understands the history of that institution. It is no secret just how much of a struggle it was for the city to eventually have that university built there by the government. The university was built in the midst of numerous outcries about the relative under development not only of that city but the entire Matabeleland region as well. In fact, even today one can see evidence of a university still under construction from the Johannesburg highway, years after it opened its doors.
In writing this article I will concede that there is probably no absolute method of evaluating and verifying whether or not the university's intake actually does represent its local surrounding population demographic profile but, the obvious conclusion one draws just by looking at the prima facie evidence, the surnames of the successful applicants, is that it doesn't. The enrolment list doesn't just fail to do so narrowly but, by multiples of country miles. I must also emphasise that this article does not in any way seek to advocate for the creation of an ethnically exclusive institution but rather a more representative one.
I am also fully aware that even daring to view the issue from such a perspective in Zimbabwe is somewhat risky lest one attracts labels and yet it's the elephant in the Zimbabwean room. Almost everyone that I know regardless of ethnicity, in their private circles recognizes or talks about it from that very perspective virtually all the time. I know this due to my mixed heritage. Perhaps it is also time we accepted the obvious that this is indeed the reality of how different ethnic groups evaluate whether or not a country respects their rights to be.
Be that as it may, if anyone holds a different view with respect to the prima facie evidence around the NUST enrolment and is certain that it does represent a fair spread of ethnicities across the country and province as a whole, I would challenge them to prove it. It must surely represent both country and province alike and in my view currently doesn't. Apart from other well documented historical cases, this is a perfect example of the kinds of complaints emanating from the region that cause ethnic fissures to widen, over and over again.
Most interestingly though when you speak to many people in Matabeleland, there is also a reasonable level of understanding that this is but an outcome of a greater underlying root cause and perhaps not always the fault of the enrolling institution. A large measure of this problem lies in the insufficient provision infrastructure to enable the required numbers of students from the region to compete for these places. One sub region which is often cited with respect to this issue is the uMzingwane Constituency (an area which also includes Esigodini) which by my last count had no more than two genuine science high schools, Falcon College and Mzingwane High School none of which even accommodated girls, to make matters worse from a gender perspective. Mawabeni and Umzinyathini are really not worth mentioning in that regard due to a historical as well as current paucity or complete absence of facilities. The odds of you ever meeting a female Dr Ncube from eSibomvu that studied at NUST are next to naught.
The high density townships of Bulawayo still have more or less the same number of high schools built during the colonial era that have some semblance of teaching science meaningfully namely the likes of Mzilikazi, Mpopoma, St Columbus High Schools and possibly Luveve etc. In the former low density high schools, you are really speaking of the private schools among them Christian Brothers College (CBC), The Bulawayo Girls College, The Bulawayo Convent and Petra High School. The rest of the other public schools or former Group A or mixed race schools are shells of their former selves. In many instances, there aren't even any functional or sufficiently stocked laboratories to deliver a meaningful science education even to the most committed student.
Although the rest of the country has been affected by the recent and current economic upheavals, the impact on what should be a significant portion of NUST's local feeder network has been most profound as one can see from not only this year's intake but the last few years' as well. It's a problem whose symptoms many are only seeing now but has in fact been in the making for a very long time. Some have argued that the root cause of this is in turn Zimbabwe's national politics.
Many experts have also highlighted the problem of not ensuring that children are taught in their mother tongue during their formative years. Because Matabeleland is home to no less than fourteen ethnic groups, it is affected the most by this problem. I have mentioned in the past how I once taught in rural Beitbridge, in a predominantly Sotho speaking area where the kids in a primary school were taught Ndebele by Shona speaking teachers. Experts say it takes such children a significantly longer length of time to catch up to their peers as far the teaching of other general and scientific subject matter is concerned.
It is my view therefore that this would be one of the greatest challenges requiring the serious and single minded attention of whoever is elected both to central government and the soon to be devolved provincial assemblies in the upcoming elections per, the incoming constitution. Unless the problem is addressed we risk the perpetuation of the perceptions of marginalization, divisions and ethnic tensions and this is the last thing we need right now. The recognition of our richness in diversity is what binds is in unity.
---------------
Lovemore Fuyane is a Zimbabwean who resides in South Africa
Source - Fuyane, Lovemore
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