IT is pleasing to hear that the Government is building more hostels for students at the three public universities, as well as Evelyn Hone College.
Students at the University of Zambia (UNZA), Copperbelt University (CBU) and Kabwe’s Mulungushi University may particularly be elated by this revelation because they have been the most affected by insufficient accommodation.
Inadequate accommodation at these institutions of higher learning is the main challenge at present, and may partly be responsible for preventing the students from obtaining quality of education.
In addition, this problem has resulted into the three universities failing to achieve higher completion rates for students as many drop out before the end of their degree programmes.
When he opened the fourth session of the 11th National Assembly yesterday, President Michael Sata said the Government was increasing students’ rooms at UNZA by another 4,160 while at CBU 3,200 more rooms were being added, 1,280 at Mulungushi University and 960 were earmarked for Evelyn Hone College.
Student populations in institutions of learning have been increasing rapidly since independence, forcing the Government to invest heavily in education at all levels. In this evolution, institutions of higher learning have not been spared.
For instance, after independence, there was only UNZA which was opened in Lusaka in 1966, after Dr Kenneth Kaunda’s government encouraged Zambians all over the country to donate whatever they could afford towards its construction.
With the main campus situated on the Great East Road, UNZA’s medical campus was located where it still is at Ridgeway opposite the University Teaching Hospital.
The country’s population increase also meant a corresponding increase in the number of students being enrolled for university education, leading to the establishment of another campus in 1979 at the former Zambia Institute of Technology in Kitwe, although it was popularly known as Ndola campus.
Nine years later in 1988, the ‘Ndola’ campus was upgraded and renamed the Copperbelt University, offering business, industrial and environmental studies.
Of course those years, student populations were relatively small such that each room could only accommodate two students.
This is no longer the case because some rooms may now have as many as six occupants while other students are forced to rent rooms in residential areas.
Such a situation has proved really inconveniencing to the students who have been distracted from studying well.
The announcement that the Government is building more student hostels is, therefore, commendable. Although even these may not be enough to
cater for all the students, it is a step in the right direction as it will reduce the number of students without rooms.
It is equally commendable that the Government is constructing more public universities in all the 10 provinces where students who qualify for university education will be absorbed and will no longer have to congest UNZA, CBU and Mulungushi University.
In the long run, the three Government universities will most likely be decongested.