The purpose of student struggles

There is serious anxiety in the minds of both staff, administration and students in the aftermath of the ban on student unions and and formations and 5 student suspensions. The ban imposed on order of the Minister of Higher Education has serious repercussions for the student community. It is true that the student unions have to make a voice on behalf of the needs and requirements of the student population, if the authorities keep a blind eye to matters. However, the union leaders, representative of the student body, seem to have forgotten the very purpose of the formation of such collective action and voice. If the interest is to benefit the undergraduate needs and requirements, the very ways in which their protests are conducted, as students of better intellect, should be intellectually decided and constructive, not destructive to the learning environment. For example, the conventional lunch hour pickets were lately replaced by forced boycotting of fellow students for the purpose of conducting large vociferous protests from the Faculty premises outside. This was preceded by a meeting and campaign followed by speeches of union leaders just in front of the Dean's office, with prior notification to even lecturers of the event via letters. Such measures have never been heard of at SUSL in its entire history, and as teachers of this student population, we remain awed by the techniques utilized, against a non-dictatorial university administration within. Students have also become volatile pawns of certain political parties to breed new members (mere "votes" in the party's eyes), and have lost their integrity as independent, intellectual thinkers of situations, the future hands of this country, and the very purpose out of which they ended up privileged for tertiary education in the first place. It would be better if we could see independent thinkers, formidable youth dealing in universities, rather than puppets who dance to the tunes and strings of hind-sighted beings with power. As tertiary education teachers, we must too have our obligations towards the creation of such an undergraduate, rather than use students for one's own political gains. Yet, within a country whose macro political structure also resembles that of within the university microcosm, there is faint hope for either. The purpose of struggle, is therefore, lost. Let us hope that students would understand the sign and signified better, for the own betterment.