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Anti-riot police deployed at the Islamic university

The Anti-Riot Police have been deployed at the Islamic University (IUIU) campus in Mbale city to make sure that an intended student’s strike doesn’t happen.

Islamic University campus in Mbale

The police were deployed earlier in the day and they are still standing guard to ensure there is no flare-up of protest.

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It was revealed by IUIU security office in the morning that the students who were plotting a riot are from the department of law, so police were deployed to make sure that plot did not go from a possibility to an actuality.

According to a letter written to Police by the students, the institution’s administrators were given up to 2 pm today to provide a solution for missing examination results. This is not the first time such results have gone missing.

This ultimatum tipped off the police, who deployed against any possible demonstration as a preventive measure.

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In recent days, Police have asked the university’s students’ leadership and the university administrators to sit at a roundtable so as to get beyond this impasse.

Six months ago, IUIU told its unregistered students that they risked missing tests at the time.

The university’s academic registrar Dr Halima Wakabi Akbar said students were supposed to pay 50 percent of their fees to sit for the tests.

As you are aware Semester II 2020/2021 Academic Year continuous assessment/test/coursework shall be given on Monday 13th September 2021 to Sunday 26th September 2021, you are hereby reminded that you need to fulfill the conditions/requirements below: You must have paid 50% of the total fees, register yourself on the ERP,” Dr Akbar said in a statement.

Many students were furious that although they paid for the tests, their results have not come out.

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Police have been up against several strikes in institutions of higher learning, recently a demonstration took place at Makerere University in Kampala.

The Makerere University Students’ Guild demonstrated against the blended teaching and learning program as no longer applicable now that the economy is been fully reopened.

Blended teaching and learning are the terms given to the educational practice of combining digital learning tools with more traditional classroom face-to-face teaching and learning.

Makerere, along with other universities in Uganda, adopted a blended teaching system after the reopening of universities and other higher learning institutions as a means of decongesting the student population on campus and thereby discouraging the spread of Covid-19.

The students’ guild, however, said the university should recall all its students for in-person learning, adding that it is irrational to have the economy fully reopened yet the university is behaving as if it is still under lockdown.

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Going forward, no more negotiations with the administration. We have had enough engagements and we are saying by February 5, all students should physically report to the university,” Makerere Guild President Shamim Nambassa said.

She was speaking at a press conference convened at Lumumba Hall in Makerere University, adding that the system of blended learning is costly and worked best as part of the strict observance of lockdown regulations which are no longer in force.

There is financial distress in that on top of the functional fees, students incur high data costs to attend lectures virtually and high transport costs to and from the university campus for discussions, physical lectures and practicals,” the Students’ Guild Speaker Gatuya Mucyo chimed in on how costly blended learning is.

The vice-chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe, disagreed, adding that the university would continue with the blended learning system.

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