PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Main Malawi University College to finally re-open 14 November
Blantyre, Malawi (PANA) - The University Council has announced that Chancellor College, the main constituent college of the University of Malawi, at the centre of a protracted academic freedom wrangle, will be finally re-opened 14 November.
"Students are asked to report on campus on Sunday, November 13, 2011," reads a statement released by the University Office in the eastern city of Zomba.
Zomba-based Chancellor College has been in a lock-down since 16 February when lecturers started protesting Inspector General of Police Peter Mukhito's summoning of associate political science professor Blessings Chinsinga on 12 February, to quiz him over a classroom example he gave his public policy class.
The youthful lecturer had reportedly likened the insurrections that toppled governments in Tunisia and Egypt to Malawi's current fuel and foreign exchange reserves shortages.
On 16 February, fellow lecturers downed tools, saying they could not teach freely in classes infested by spooks planted by police. They also demanded an apology from Mukhito and assurances of academic freedom.
However, President Bingu wa Mutharika, who is also Vice-Chancellor of the University of Malawi as well as Commander-in-Chief of the Malawi Police Service, said the police chief could not apologise to "teachers teaching insurrection".
Despite advice from the Presidential Contact Group on Dialogue to re-instate the four, Mutharika refused. As recently as a fortnight ago Mutharika re-iterated his stand against the four, whom he declared "renegade lecturers". But the student body public heckled, booed and jeered him. This forced Mutharika to do a mea culpa.
"The President is guaranteeing academic freedom within the conditions of service of the University of Malawi," said a statement from the Office of the President and Cabinet, adding that, "That Government has never and will never place spies in classrooms or within the campuses of University of Malawi."
In a letter to the University Council, Minister of Education George Chaponda and Mukhito, the Chancellor College Academic Staff Union (CCASU) said the lecturers were now finally ready to teach on the understanding that academic freedom "shall be respected as guaranteed in the constitution" and that government should pledge never to plant spies on campuses.
The letter also asked government to guarantee that the rescission dismissing four lecturers at the centre of the stand-off "is unconditional,"
"It is with the fore-going understanding that CCASU would like to communicate and assure its members and other concerned academic members of staff are ready to resume teaching," read the letter signed by CCASU deputy president Timothy Biswick.
-0- PANA RT/BOS 5Nov2011
"Students are asked to report on campus on Sunday, November 13, 2011," reads a statement released by the University Office in the eastern city of Zomba.
Zomba-based Chancellor College has been in a lock-down since 16 February when lecturers started protesting Inspector General of Police Peter Mukhito's summoning of associate political science professor Blessings Chinsinga on 12 February, to quiz him over a classroom example he gave his public policy class.
The youthful lecturer had reportedly likened the insurrections that toppled governments in Tunisia and Egypt to Malawi's current fuel and foreign exchange reserves shortages.
On 16 February, fellow lecturers downed tools, saying they could not teach freely in classes infested by spooks planted by police. They also demanded an apology from Mukhito and assurances of academic freedom.
However, President Bingu wa Mutharika, who is also Vice-Chancellor of the University of Malawi as well as Commander-in-Chief of the Malawi Police Service, said the police chief could not apologise to "teachers teaching insurrection".
Despite advice from the Presidential Contact Group on Dialogue to re-instate the four, Mutharika refused. As recently as a fortnight ago Mutharika re-iterated his stand against the four, whom he declared "renegade lecturers". But the student body public heckled, booed and jeered him. This forced Mutharika to do a mea culpa.
"The President is guaranteeing academic freedom within the conditions of service of the University of Malawi," said a statement from the Office of the President and Cabinet, adding that, "That Government has never and will never place spies in classrooms or within the campuses of University of Malawi."
In a letter to the University Council, Minister of Education George Chaponda and Mukhito, the Chancellor College Academic Staff Union (CCASU) said the lecturers were now finally ready to teach on the understanding that academic freedom "shall be respected as guaranteed in the constitution" and that government should pledge never to plant spies on campuses.
The letter also asked government to guarantee that the rescission dismissing four lecturers at the centre of the stand-off "is unconditional,"
"It is with the fore-going understanding that CCASU would like to communicate and assure its members and other concerned academic members of staff are ready to resume teaching," read the letter signed by CCASU deputy president Timothy Biswick.
-0- PANA RT/BOS 5Nov2011
