By Joshua Nahamya,
Mbarara
The stand-off has escalated at Mbarara University of Science and Technology-MUST following an industrial action by public lecturers around Uganda over delayed salary increment which has prompted MUST students to protest today.
Most students have decried crippled services at MUST, stressing that only part-timer or private lecturers are teaching yet they aren’t reliable compared to the public lecturers.
There is tight security in and around the university and Mbarara regional referral hospital after the hospital director Dr. Celestine Barigye asked the district police commander ASP John Rutaagira to intervene for the safety of patients and other people.
The Secretary-General of Mbarara University of Science and Technology Academic Staff Association (MUSTASA) Julius Taremwa recently maintained that no more teaching until the government addressed the salary increment issue.
According to John Johns Bwengye, a student at MUST revealed to this website that ever since they returned to the university they have spent over one month without studying and are being forced to pay the full amount of tuition and other added amount of money for zoom lectures which have hindered many.
“We are facing a lot of problems as students because the lecturers want to teach on zoom but we don’t have net work and we are using our money to buy data and yet they increased tuition, they tried to put up wifi but it has failed to work and we are suffering with a lot of work to do research”.
He added that they are going to continue demonstrating and are to resume on Monday.
The University Vice-Chancellor Professor Celestino Obua hasn’t given a comment on the matter.
