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“When Two Elephants fight it is the Grass that Gets Trampled”
Two
years ago, in a cabinet ministerial meeting, PIA unleashed his barrage
of words at the Minister of Education saying that the country’s
educational system is a failure and is in shambles and ordered him to
introduce a new system right away. This is exactly what he reiterated
in a meeting with the staff of University of Asmara a month ago. To
that effect, the bewildered minister himself and the Ministry of
Education at large, were in a rampage run to do something to allure the
president. They were set to change the whole curriculum in a blink of
an eye and claimed that they have introduced a new one as part of the Warsay-Yikaalo campaign to bring about a quick and radical change in that area.
The
Minister of Education and his cronies embarked on surfing in the
internet to just copy-paste other countries’ curriculum and in no time
he, along with other members of the task force assigned to searching
and copying a curriculum, came up with one adopted from Mexico (or is
it Texas?). Voila! It was introduced as a solution to our crumbling
system. The former curriculum was discarded; all the 5 to 6
years-old-text-books, which were used in schools and cost hundreds of
millions, were ordered to be disposed of and get replaced right away. In
a rush, teachers were informed to acquaint themselves with the new
curriculum. Along with that motion, students who were to take
university entrance examination were ordered to leave to Sawa and
finish their last year of high school in the “place of culture and
education” as they are calling it these days. This flabbergasted every
one.
Before
the public finished contemplating this, it was announced that the
Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Ministry of Defense are
constructing new colleges in Mai Nefhi and other places. Colonel Ezira,
former administrator of Sawa, was assigned as the President or
administrator of the new “technical institute” in Mai Nefhi.
Prefabricated Houses were imported from abroad, about 400 Indian
good-for-nothing teachers were recruited and all the students who did
their last year of high school in Sawa were all put in the yet
unfinished new “institute.” Innumerable departments were opened
overnight- like Aerospace Engineering. [To talk about the colleges and departments merits another big article.]
Consequently,
University of Asmara was informed last year that there would not be any
fresh-students to be assigned to the country’s only higher institution.
Academic year 2003/2004 in the university passed by with out freshmen
students. To add insult to injury, University of Asmara was again
informed this year that all the students who are finishing high school
in Sawa this year will be sent only to Mai Nefhi. This means that
University of Asmara will not have freshmen next year as well. The
university is just entertaining III year and IV year batches.
What
is more, last year the minister of education ordered that there would
not be any graduation ceremony and all the students who were to
graduate last July were ordered to leave for Sawa. Those who finished a
year ago and were doing their university service in different
ministries and those who just finished IV year left to Sawa on July 12. The taken-aback Dr. Welde-ab Yisak did not say anything. When he was approached by the students and told him that most of them were trained in Gahtelay or Sawa in the 9th round and asked him why they are heading to Sawa again, he was short of any plausible answer. His only response was “If you think the military training you took in Sawa in the 9th round and in Gahtelay on the 13th
can exempt you from this, that is fine with me. But you have to know
that you will be taking responsibility for any consequence.” The
disillusioned students who had a bad experience in Wi’A and Gelalo
just left swiftly. Now, after almost three months training, they are
back. They all say that there was nothing new they learned: most of the
time they spent doing some “Maetot” [harvest] or cleaning the “tsetser” [pebbles] from the yards of their respective officers.
Three
weeks ago, true to its nature, the Ministry of Education told the
Mai-Nefhi students that they have to return to their respective
regiments (Ahadu), and with out any shame told them that they
will only be admitted back if their respective “Ahadu” says so. Indeed,
this is a sign that tells that the government did not found the
Mai-nefhi College to give our youngsters an opportunity for education.
It rather used it as a pretext to scoop money from international donors
and a means of controlling them. This, indeed, is one of the signs of
grudges that the regime has on education and more specifically on the
only higher institution in the country.
Whenever
one meets the University students who were supposed to graduate last
July and they are asked when graduation is, no one has the faintest
idea. Neither does Dr. Woldeab. Parents who have waited so long to see
their sons or daughters’ graduation seem to have given up. It is hard
to fathom how a regime of your own can have so much disrespect for the
society and specifically parents of the graduates.
Of course, in today’s Eritrea there is no such thing as planning. The observation that says “Policies and regulations are drafted in bars and are asked for implementation the next day,” is, in fact, proving to be true. Evaluation is always retroactive. In this particular case, so many have already spent a lot for the making of Siwa
and buying garments for the ceremony. A caring government would have
done either of two things: Let the students graduate and take them to
Sawa for training or tell them, way beforehand, that there won’t be any
graduation so that they be saved from preparing for and expending
unnecessarily. That would have saved the students and parents so much.
The government, however, does not have the courtesy to do that. It has
been a while since it started getting puffed up with contempt and
arrogance and undermining the people. Of course, our policy makers are
busy drinking whisky and flirting with young girls and don’t have the
time to think through the economic hurdles the people are going. “Ab Kebdi Tsugub Timuy Yelen.”
Next
year, there will only be III year and IV year in the University. The
year after, there will only be IV year students. And after two years,
there won’t be any students enrolled in the University of Asmara. To
just add insult to injury, President Isayas visited University
of Asmara and in a meeting with the staff of UoA he said that they
should not be surprised if they don’t get any fresh students in the
coming 4-5 years. The reason: “We are in a transition,” he said
shamelessly and sarcastically. Maybe the government wants to close the
only higher institution in the country and keep every one as ignorant.
This is the worse crime a government can commit on education. In
reality, just because it is the only higher institution with almost 50
years age in the country would make it qualified for improvement and
enlargement, to say the least.
Even the Derg regime did not try, until the end of his stay in power, to destroy it. Dismembering
a university that has the history of 50 years can only have one
explanation- the government is anti-education. If the government does
not like the leadership in the institution it has every power and right
to kick it out. After all it is a leadership that itself put in the
seat. If it has any hard feelings on the professors it can just tell
them to leave just like it did in 1994. But dismembering it is not
something that makes any sense. It, therefore, is every scholar’s
responsibility to do something about this before it is too late.
Specifically, it is the task of all the graduates of the institution
since its inception to lobby and force the government to stop
mutilating it.
Some say it is the manifestation of the power struggle between the Minster of Education Mr. Osman Salih and Dr. Weldeab Yisak,
president of the University who once, rumor had it, was to be the
minister of education. As the saying goes “When two elephants fight….”
these two people who are power wielders are making their biggest
mistakes.
Whatever
the fact is, this is a grave concern for everyone and history will
harshly judge us if we let this happen. Let’s all do something about it
and, more specifically, the Eritrean intelligentsia is called upon to
stop this dismemberment of University of Asmara.
Email: zeykesene2@yahoo.com
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