End this anarchy

THE perpetual violence and destruction at our universities seems to be neverending. Students have a right to agitate for affordable education, but every right is equally balanced with a responsibility.

Recent newspaper and television reports have been painting a horrible picture of our tertiary institutions locally and internationally.

The violent action of the students is doing little to advance their cause. Some psychologists are attributing the violence enacted by the students, coupled with an element of criminality, to unfulfilled promises. Students may be under the impression that they have exhausted all forms of protest and as a last resort they express themselves via attention-catching publicity. This they feel may jolt the authorities into action.

Each university is saddled with its own peculiar type of problem that students want resolved. The University of KwaZulu-Natal students want outsourcing to be terminated and the university to directly employ the gardeners, cleaners, administrators and lecturers.

Students at the University of Cape Town and the Durban University of Technology are fighting over the issue of a lack of accommodation, while the University of Pretoria is embroiled in a race war between protesting black students and their Afrikaner counterparts. The black students want Afrikaans to fall while white students are saying it is their right to be taught in Afrikaans. At this juncture, level heads are needed to move education forward.

Negotiations are about compromises. It is a give and take situation. Being overtly militant with a rigid stance on issues will never culminate in a positive outcome. Therefore students need to understand that change is a gradual process; however, clear timelines need to be negotiated for realistic demands placed on the table.

All roleplayers need to be constructively engaged to get students back into the lecture halls. The skills to drive our sluggish economy forward rest in the hands of some of our conscientious students. It’s time government takes a decisive step to end this anarchy or we will be in danger of going through a whole year without constructive lecturing and learning taking place. Vijay Surujpal