The management of Makerere University is looking into the possibility of extending the second semester due to the ongoing staff strike, the Vice Chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, said.
Appearing before Parliament’s Committee on Education and Sports, Prof Nawangwe, who was accompanied by the University Council chairperson, Ms Lorna Magara, and other officials, said although they have not set the dates for the extension, they will discuss the matter extensively first.
“In the council communiqué two days ago, the issue arose and management was tasked to make sure that students who have lost time should be compensated with time,” Prof Nawangwe said.
He added: “There are those who started on the very first day and so there, there is no issue but those who have lost time, we are going to verify how much time is lost and we recommend to council that for those, the time lost should be compensated.”
He was responding to concerns by MPs about the fate of students as the strike goes on. “Once the students pay, they must be taught; assuming that all these students drag the university to court, will you be able to pay them?” asked Labwor County MP Michael Ayepa.
The Vice Chancellor explained that many lecturers had accepted to resume work and that by Wednesday most of the colleges had resumed full teaching in all departments, with the exception of school of law.
Makerere University students earlier this week came out to demand for the extension of the semester.
Being a promotional semester, some students suggested that the management should extend the current semester, as a way of compensating their lost time which has so far expanded to one month of no lectures.
“We are spending a lot of money coming for lectures but some lecturers have not turned up. So the management should think of compensating us by extending the semester,” Simon Mugabi, a Bachelors of Science in Education student suggested.
Derrick Kamanzi, a third-year Social Work and Social Administration student also suggested that lecturers should compensate their lost time to avoid being burdened with a lot of work.
“If lecturers do not compensate us, we shall be burdened with a lot of work that we will not be able to digest in a short period of time,” Kamanzi said.
