The dilemmas facing Prof. John Akech: On the right to education and the school fees at Juba University (Part 1)

The dilemmas facing Prof. John Akech and the students of the University of Juba

By John Deng Diar Diing, Mombasa, Kenya

Thursday, October 29, 2020 (PW) — I remember discussing at length with late Eng.  Akol Lual Lualthe issue of school fees, quality of education, and poverty of lecturers at the University of Juba on one hand and proliferation of backstreet ‘universities’ in South Sudan on the other. While I will was teaching Theory of Structures, one of the most difficult civil engineering third year’s courses, Eng. Akol Lual Lual was teaching one of the heavy current courses of electrical engineering in third year.

Because we were part-time lecturers, we used Saturdays to deliver four hours of lectures to our students and one hour for tutorials. We would start from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. lecturing and tutorial sessions from 2-3 pm.(not in the contract) with one hour lunch break. In between, we would have 15 minutes break after 2 hours of lecture.

In one of these breaks, we decided to share our aspirations for ourselves, South Sudan and our students. So, we went into discussing payment and its impact on the quality of education at the University of Juba in particular and other public universities in general. It’s also suffice to mention that I taught mathematics for Economics at Catholic University of the Sudan and its problems were identical to those of the University of Juba. 

Nonetheless, we were paid SSP40 per hour for 42 hours in a semester, which was paid as SSP 1,680 at the end of the semester. That was neither enough to fuel GOSS Nissan Patrol that I used to drive for a week nor would it pay for public transport, Engineer Akol used to use from his hotel in Sherikat. 

Of course, the two of us were academic leaders of our times and were conscious of our responsibility to aid our students even if it meant for free, and indeed it was free. We realized that it would be unlikely to attract any quality human resource to teach at the University unless on voluntary basis as we did. We postponed the discussion for lunch hour as we had to resume classes.

During lunch break, we resumed the discussion and arrived at the following model, which we borrowed from the University of Nairobi. There were opportunities that could be used to mobilize resources and somehow control proliferation of adulterated education through market mechanism.

That there were a lot of seniors most of whom were or still are veterans who abandoned their education for the liberation struggle. They had money but no time to pursue their studies. A degree from the University of Juba would be a dream that one would want to come true. So we thought, what if the University opened a massive module II program that would start with certificates courses through Diplomas up up to PhD programs and it would be running in evenings and Saturdays. This module would be charged 10 folds to raise money to subsidize regular programs, call it module I. 

The University could also open centers in major towns in South Sudan to offer University of Juba certificates and diplomas to working class who would be willing to pay reasonable amount of money for fees. This will likely attract wide range of education aspirants while at the same time mobilizing direly needed resources to sustain and raise quality of education in government controlled universities. I share the same school of thoughts with Dr. Adwok Nyaba on mushrooming of private universities.

Instead of giving blanket treatment for all students, we thought this kind of program would make the University self sustainingand at the same do justice to those who need education as a requisite to successful livelihood while giving a second chance to those who need high education to supplement what they already have.

With my experience, I would imagine the choices that confront Prof. John Akec on daily basis, as an administrator and an academia. While it’s necessary that the University needs resources to survive, it should not lose its purpose as a social stabilizer that gives hope to those who want to use education to change their fortunes in life. I’m a beneficiary of merited subsidy on education.

I know what it means to those students who see subsidized or government-sponsored education at public universities as the only stepping stone to life aspirations. Those aspirations should not be killed. It’s a moral responsibility of a society to advance hopes of those who dare to dream and sacrifice for the aspirations. Their rise will inspire generations down the line. They should be lifted.

The solution to quality education in South Sudan is more complicated than we would want to think. Education is a business to governments and nations. It raises skills and financial resources. Without quality education, Government cannot afford to offer High Education Loan because most graduates will not be easily employable and if they do get jobs, the purchasing power in our country may not let them service the loan.

It’s therefore a chicken and egg problem.

Which one comes first? Investing in quality education of few that will yield quality human resource that will pay their education loan and slowly expand literacy level or allow mass education that yields unemployable skills that will starve University education with resources. The former cannot be sanctioned by the odds of millennium, universal right to education.

On the other hand, the government understandably has no money to make a paradigm shift by making affront heavy investment. Both Prof Akec and students have a case. They need to be moderated fairly.

The author, Eng. John Deng Diar Diing, is the Deputy Director for Infrastructure Development and Management at the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority in Mombasa, Kenya. He can be reached via his email: Deng Diar <diardeng@gmail.com>

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