GENERAL

Students’ stationery allowance doubled By Ananiya Alick Ponje After a marathon of discussions between the Public Universities Students Loan Trust and students unions of Chancellor College and the Malawi Polytechnic on a 100% increment of book and stationery allowance which was proposed by the entire body of university of Malawi (UNIMA) students, the two parties have finally reached a consensus. The Trust has finally agreed to give UNIMA students a sum of K20 000 each for book and stationery allowance which represents a 100% increase. This has followed numerous efforts by mainly the Students Union of Chancellor College (SUCC) to have the increment implemented by holding different discussions with the Trust for times without number. During the last meeting that was held at the Polytechnic last Tuesday the Trust agreed that the 100% increase would be effected but in two phases. It proposed that the students should get K15 000 this semester and get the remaining K5000 at the beginning of the next semester. The proposal was after the Trust told the students unions of Chanco and Poly that since the budget had already been drawn, it was hard to find the extra K5000. In fact, the Trust pointed out that even the K5000 that had been added on the K10 000 to make it K15 000 had been “stolen” from other allocations. In a memo released earlier this year, the Trust announced that it would only afford a 50% increase. This did not go well with the students, especially from Chancellor College, who agreed that they should still sign K20 000 on the loan agreement forms. The release of the memo resulted in some students at some constituent colleges of UNIMA, Bunda College of agriculture and Kamuzu College of Nursing, to be precise, to receive the K15 000 since these colleges opened earlier than Chanco and Poly. This implies that they will get the other K5000 in the course of time. Usually when there are matters which need to be tackled by the whole university students fraternity, Chancellor College and The Polytechnic are the only colleges that are the first to act. In a General Assembly convened in the Great Hall at Chancellor College on Wednesday 8 April on the way forward following the declaration that the Trust would only afford an increase of 50%, a number of students made their contributions by raising different points. In his opening speech, SUCC president Jimion Nyanda told the gathering that he had received a call from an official at the trust where he told the president to convince the students to receive the K15 000. One of the contributors during the assembly said that it was not surprising to hear that KCN and Bunda students received K15 000 because they did not indicate any amount on the loan agreement forms. “The fact that students at KCN and Bunda did not indicate the amount they wanted to get implied that they could get any amount,” said the contributor. SUCC speaker Timothy Pagonachi Mtambo said during the assembly that he had done everything within his capacity to inform the Trust that Chancellor College students would not accept any amount less than K20 000. Macdonald Nkhuwa, a fourth year student at Chanco observed that even though some colleges had already accepted the K15 000, they would get the remaining K5000 any time. “In 2006, other colleges received K5000, but we, at Chancellor College got K10 000. The other colleges received the remaining K5000 later. The same thing can happen now,” he said, referring to the fact that students at Bunda and KCN had already received the K15 000. Finally, last Wednesday, the SUCC speaker circulated a memo to inform every residential student that they 100% increment had been effected, but that it would be given out in two installments. Then about four hours later after publication of the memo, the speaker received a call from the Trust informing him that the trust had finally agreed to give out the K20 000 at once. This was still after continued discussions between the two parties. The students are supposed to get their allowances by close of business next week according to the SUCC speaker. James Munyapa, a residential student at Chancellor College who is going to benefit from the increment lauded the Trust, saying the decision to effect the increment at once is the best the trust has ever made. “It does not necessarily mean that K20 000 is enough. In fact in my course combination, the cheapest book is pegged at K7000, so how many books will I buy with K20 000?” he said. “But still more the trust has to be praised for understanding us.” All this having been done, it is not yet clear whether students at Mzuzu University (Mzuni), another public university which benefits from the Public Universities Students Loan Trust Fund, will receive the K20 000, which is the fruit of a battle staged by the University of Malawi Students Union (UMSU), mainly students unions of Chanco and Poly.