Nust 'tribal bias' against Mat'land students unfounded

by Unkown

2012 July 03 10:33:23 | 2093 Views

The National University of Science and Technology (Nust) recently came under fire for alleged bias against students from Matabeleland region.

A small coterie of influential people and the civil society organisations totally fabricated the position as it had no proof whatsoever apart from a list of the 2012-13 prospective undergraduates. Anybody with a brain knows that Zimbabwe no longer has a region that is purely inhabited by a particular people. Therefore merely going through surnames on a list is hardly proof of the bias against a particular region.

In fact, the regionalists are those who want a national institution to lower its enrolment standards in order to accommodate students on a regional basis at the expense of qualified ones who possess the prerequisite Mathematics.

It is known that for one to enrol at Nust they need O-Level Maths and there is no other way. Nust has identified the problem of poor grades in Maths and has come up with Nustep, a programme that has been running with the aim of imparting skills to O and A- Level pupils. The programme has been successful so far with pupils from Binga scoring high marks for the first time since independence.

This Science and Maths programme is the only way to address alleged bias and even the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Polytechnic and other universities are implementing similar programmes. This puts to rest the malicious and inaccurate conclusion bordering on sensationalism that have been spread by some of our brothers and sisters.

We should not seek to divide ourselves on regional and geographical lines lest we go on to even the district and cell lines. Apart from that we can even go on to say who is tall, dark, and left-handed and so on. This goes to show how stupid the idea of segregation can be.

As already pointed out, a mere look at names does not suffice to conclude bias against Matabeleland. Many people in the region have never been to other provinces in spite of their roots being there.

A man secures a job in Plumtree, Gwanda or Kezi and is in his 20s. He marries there and his children speak the local Kalanga, Sotho or Ndebele but not Karanga or Zezuru even though they have Shona surnames. Are his children labelled as coming from other regions when issues affecting say Matobo District are concerned? Do they represent Mutoko, Murewa or Shamva when they cannot even speak the ChiToko or ChiManyika?

Eveline High School of Bulawayo will be representing Zimbabwe in the International Debate Education Association competition in Leon City, Mexico. As Bulawayans and people of Matabeleland we are happy that our own people have excelled to represent the nation. However, if we follow the line of thinking among some of us then the pupils representing this city and Zimbabwe should not be enrolled at Nust even though they have been identified as children of Bulawayo.

A mere glance at the names without mentioning that the school is Bulawayo-based would ignorantly lead to the conclusion that it is actually in Harare or Kadoma. This shows that we cannot cite bias in Nust's enrolment as the passes and subject combinations are more important than the names, unless one is looking at affirmative action whereby girls are enrolled based on a lower cut-off point but all deserving males are considered first.

Should we introduce affirmative action for the region? Does positive discrimination work? For some of us who have managed to climb the academic ladder without these pitiful pushes from others, it would be betrayal of the highest order. Going to university is not something that is out of reach of anybody.

In fact, attaining a degree should not be something to boast of because anyone who can read and write can be a graduate. If standards are to be lowered, it means anybody with a name identifiable with the region would be taken to be a beneficiary of affirmative action. When that happens even those who excelled lose out at job interviews and the like.

For instance, Matabeleland region has produced lawyers like Matshobana Ncube, Sindiso Mazibisa and others. We also have Nust Vice-Chancellor, Professor Lindela Ndlovu, Dr Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, Dr Obert Mpofu and many others. Many of them enrolled at the University of Zimbabwe and elsewhere on merit and if we settle for mediocrity in the name of levelling the field, they will cease to be regarded as "gurus" in their fields.

It appears some among us enjoy hiding behind the tribal card whenever we fail to compete. Prof Ndlovu got his degrees through hard work not pseudo regional quota balancing acts.

The irony of it is that many leaders from Matabeleland were educated at the University of Zimbabwe since many universities in the country were only established just yesterday. One shudders to think what would have happened had we stayed with only the UZ. Matabeleland South, Matabeleland North, Mashonaland West, Mashonaland Central, Masvingo and Midlands provinces all have state universities except Manicaland and Mashonaland East.

Should the other universities reject students from Mashonaland East and Manicaland on regional basis? A look at the admissions lists of Chinhoyi, UZ, Midlands and Masvingo universities as well as Mary Mount Teachers' College in Mutare reflects names familiar to Matabeleland. However, who does not know that even though some names are Ndebele they actually refer to Manyika people in the case of Africa University, Nust, UZ, and other institutions.

A name does not conclusively show which region you come from. One is tempted to adopt US President Barrack Obama's reasons for stopping the deportation of Hispanics aged 16 to 30 on the basis that the majority have been integrated into American society and have little ties with the original Latin American countries with original religious, schooling, culture, language being shaped by local experience.

We should not change things for the sake of doing so.

Our calls should reflect how we value ourselves. Are we inferior to other regions? Are we so daft we cannot comprehend Maths and Science? What do we do about it or do we accept our inferiority by lowering our entry standards? I would suggest we compete strongly against other regions bearing in mind the numbers game in that other regions combined obviously outnumber us.

Harare alone has more people than Bulawayo, Gwanda and Hwange combined. Even Chitungwiza in the 2002 census had more people than Bulawayo which was third. It becomes difficult if not impossible for Bulawayo to have many of her sons and daughters at Nust even if one does not refer to ethnicity but numbers. Considering that the UZ is the country's largest university, it offers more options for study than any other university. Many Bulawayo kids will always opt for the UZ since it covers basically any course available at other colleges while the rest specialise in certain areas.

I even reckon that after studying at the UZ many opted to stay in Mashonaland and lots of Ndebele names at UZ, Chinhoyi, Mutare and Bindura belong to children who have never set foot in Matabeleland, whereas Gweru, Masvingo, Lupane and Gwanda universities will always have lots of people from Matabeleland even though they may have non-Ndebele names.

Proverbs 3 vs 29 aptly sums up my ideas, "Devise not evil against your neighbour, seeing he dwells securely by you."

Tribal Bias Nust

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Source: chronicle