By Wei Kooh Nyaal,
Sep 19, 2021 — Like any other young people from any other countries in the world, South Sudanese youth are attracted by Higher Learning Institutions in East Africa where they think standard or quality education is being offered hoping that after graduation this quality education may land them in well-paying jobs either in the private sector or public sector. The technological advance in East Africa that has made it possible for learning to seamlessly continue is one of the factors that has attracted students from South Sudan to enroll in Kenyan Universities since the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus in early 2019, which has continued to threaten life as well as education worldwide.
However, these South Sudanese students have been suffering in the hands of these Kenyan Universities for a long time now. There are many untold stories about these students studying in Kenya. Of late there have been reports on such issues as mysterious missing examinations and assignment marks which the students said is deliberately designed by some teaching departments. Examination and assignment marks, according to the students, seem to be either intentionally not entered into the system or deleted from the system. This is to make the students pay extra money so that they can have their marks seen and entered into the system.Â
In Mount Kenya University, South Sudanese students who are taking their courses online or through distance learning can go for like three months or more without seeing their results. But the funny thing is that the universities ask the students to pay full fees while waiting for their results which may not come out well, thus forcing them to re-register the failed course units when they are on offer. The other difficult part of this situation is when you want to complain about any missing marks. This takes ages to get sorted, and to get sorted, you must pay something. Sometimes, the semester marks disappear from the system and the students are forced to register the units again and pay the full semester fees. Trial to report these cases to the student bodies in both universities and to the South Sudanese embassy in Kenya has not borne any fruits.
The below is one of the emails sent by one of the students from Mount Kenya University to his colleagues.
IS MOUNT KENYA UNIVERSITY A HOAX?
Greetings to all
Students sat for exams close to 1 year ago and no results up to now! Does MKU still exist or is it closed? Please let us know .. You can’t keep admitting students while you cannot produce results of the exams done ! Please produce the results of the students or else i have to post this on several social media platforms and expose your weakness … Please don’t try playing games with the future of your students, you forget they are your ambassadors to the world.
I have copied in the very very sleepy *Commission for University Education-Kenya to also come in and look at this issue.
The efforts to also report these cases to the higher authorities of the both universities have not been successful because there is no accessibility to these offices whose holders are rude and not welcoming at all times. Students have faced embarrassments in the process of reporting these cases to universities’ departmental heads where they are chased away in the name of social distancing while lectures have been going on in which some of the classes have over fifty students.
These mysterious regular disappearances of only South Sudanese marks and units in the systems in these two universities has been a way of making money by these higher learning institutions in Kenya especially the notorious, never student- oriented Kenya Methodist and Mount Kenya Universities. Students are forced to repeat the whole trimester because they can’t complain and no evidence a student can present to the university as the units are deleted from the system. In this case you have only two options; to pay the money again or leave the university.
In Kenya Methodist University, according to the students, you may think you are in a military barrack as some of the lecturers behave like soldiers and when wanting to see a lecturer, you are kept waiting for long hours. Sometimes you end up being scolded and get discouraged and go away after sitting for a long time hoping that you will get sorted. The next day you come and get the same treatment. But what can you do? You must continue to suffer to have your case sorted. After all you came here to study and this being a foreign country, you must learn to endure such mistreatment and graduate so that you go back home and help build the country.
The South Sudanese embassy in Nairobi should intervene in this situation to rescue the students from this mistreatment and exploitation especially by these two universities. The South Sudanese students’ bodies in Kenya should also join the embassy in finding the solution to an end to this situation which has been going on for years now. The only condition that I think can work is to advise these two universities to immediately stop this exploitation or no South Sudanese student will be allowed to study in these two universities by not endorsing any certificate conferred by such universities.
The writer is a South Sudanese student pursuing Bachelor of Business Management at Kenyatta University in Kenya. I can be reached on weikoohnyaal@gmail.com.
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