via Equatorial Guinea students stranded in Zim The Zimbabwean 14 January 2015
Close to 200 students from Equatorial Guinea are stranded in Zimbabwe following a botched exchange programme between the two governments.
Inside sources told The Zimbabwean this week that President Robert Mugabe’s government last year agreed to allow students from Equatorial Guinea to come and earn tertiary qualifications locally due to Zimbabwe’s reputation of having the highest literacy rate in Africa.
President Mugabe and The Equatorial Guinea leader, Obiang Nguema, have been close friends since the former’s security operatives forestalled a coup in Malabo a decade ago.
The sources said Nguema’s education ministry hurriedly sent the students to Zimbabwe in November last year after the deal was informally agreed between the two governments.
“The problem is, the majority of the students cannot speak English at all,” said one of the sources.
The students were brought in without prior consultation with college authorities or the relevant ministry and have been allocated to several polytechnic colleges.
“Zimbabwean authorities were taken by surprise but they lack the guts to tell the truth that the students cannot be accommodated in local colleges because of the language barrier and other challenges,” said the source.
They reportedly spent the Christmas holiday holed up in college dormitories with specific instructions from the CIO that they should not be let out due to the inability to communicate with locals.
Some of the students, who had been made to believe that they would study for degrees in technical areas such as engineering, have been forcefully dumped at teachers colleges in such places like Gweru and Bulawayo, where college authorities have been warned to be silent about the unfolding scandal.
Even the CIO, said another contact, is troubled by the hasty decision to bring the students to Zimbabwe. He said their arrival was ill-timed, considering that they were brought in the middle of term.
However, it has been established that the CIO, working with the higher education ministry, is arranging special course periods for the students. College authorities are said to have been ordered to take care of the students over the holiday period and provide them with food and accommodation while payment would come later.
At one of the colleges, kitchen staff members were barred from breaking for Christmas to ensure the students were fed.
“The students are demoralised. Those that can speak some English have told us that they want to go back but their government is insisting that they must take whatever is available here. One girl managed to go back after her parents paid for her return air ticket. There is drama here,” said a senior member of staff at one of the colleges.
No comment could be obtained from the relevant ministry but the sources said higher education ministry officials would soon decide what to do with students and blame the Equatorial government for rushing to send them here.
COMMENTS
This is a very tragic case. First, why would a CIO person be making decisions on educational matters? Sounds like another case of faulty diplomas being issued is in the workings. Also why dump the expenses on the school officials for holiday accommodations for these kids? Will the kitchen staff be paid extra money at a time and half rate since it is overtime.? This is human abuse at the highest level. These were political decisions made without educational considerations in place. God bless, can our decision makers get some sense?