Reuben Twinomujuni, the University Senior Public Relations Officer, says that following the outbreak of covid-19 at the university, the university decided to cancel physical learning and resort to online teaching.
Eight student leaders at Kyambogo University have been arrested
during a protest against the institution’s decision to suspend physical
learning and ordering for online learning following a surge in the number of
covid-19 cases.
The arrested include; John Mbaziira, guild president, and his vice, Claire
Namara. Others are; Eriasa Kato, Bright Kasozi, Calvin Waiswa, Geoffrey Ssali,
Alphonso Nkurunziza, and Ivan Malingumu.
During the protest, the students blocked all the roads leading to the university
with bonfires and heaps of cabbage saying they wanted the university management
to stop the implementation of the e-learning system saying most of them are not
prepared for it.
Kyambogo University has registered eight covid-19 positive cases. Six of the cases
were detected from students while two are administrative staff.
Reuben Twinomujuni, the University Senior Public
Relations Officer, says that following the outbreak of covid-19 at the university,
the university decided to cancel physical learning and resort to online teaching.
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However, the decision was resisted by a section of students and
the university guild leadership who claim that many of their colleagues don’t
have laptops and smartphones while others cannot afford internet data.
Edwin Tumusiime, the Personal Assistant to the University Guild President,
says the guild leadership has several times written to the university
management asking them to either reconsider the decision or engage students on
how they could smoothly migrate to online lectures in vain.
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But, Twinomujuni says that even without the COVID-19 cases, the
university had already designed a road map that was sent to all students before
reopening indicating that at a given point lectures would be held online in the
blended system.
He adds that before the program was rolled out, the university did
a survey among the students to find their willingness or inability to
participate in the proposed arrangement and most of the learners accepted that
they have the required gadgets for online learning.
"70 percent of the learners said they had laptops and
smartphones and they could access the tool. To ensure that learners are catered
for, the university installed Wireless internet hotspots all over the university campus and
at different colleges for learners who cannot afford data,” Twinomujuni said
adding that an option of using university computes in different ICT
laboratories was granted to those who don’t own laptops or smartphones.
Mark Kiguli, a student pursuing a Bachelors of Arts degree in education,
says that the said Wireless Internet points are not working and at times are
completely off. He says that learning
cannot take place if they are not certain of attending classes.
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The Deputy Kampala Metropolitan Police Spokesperson
Luke Owoyesigyire says that the arrested students have been charged with
inciting violence and are currently detained at Jinja road police station
pending investigations.
