Where are the resources??

I remember how excited l was when l passed my A level results. l was happy because it meant that l could proceed to university (which had always been my dream). My parents still thought l was a kid then and therefore the task of choosing which university to go to was theirs. I remember sitting in on one of their discussions as they tried to figure out which university I could go to. They agreed that l should go to THE National University of Science and Technology (NUST).I heard them talk about how good it is and that it is recognised internationally. I did not dispute that because l had done a little bit of research on it and also heard all these recommendations.

I finally went to NUST where I am currently doing my final year or semester (I prefer using semester because it makes me feel that I am actually almost done with my first degree). I loved my first years at Nust. I enjoyed the fact that l could be late for class and not be required to explain myself. I also loved the fact that l could go to class wearing my clothes, no uniform!! I can still remember how excited and happy l was then. I was enjoying all my first two years oblivious of the circumstances surrounding our learning environment.

The problem arose when l started getting serious with my school work (Final year).That is when l started noticing that our university is resource-less.

I am a journalism student and this field from what l know also comprises of practical work. During that time, our varsity did not have a radio studio. I can still recall that for our introduction to radio course, we went to Radio Dialogue so that we can get a feel of what a radio studio feels like. And we took turns to sit behind the microphone but the moment was short lived. If l recall clearly we barely spent 5minutes behind the microphone and we never went back to that studio.

We did another course on Fundamentals of Film and Video production. We did not produce anything neither did we get a chance to visit a television studio and to date l still have no idea what it looks like in real life. One of the reasons why we could not produce anything is because; The Journalism Department at Nust is in possession of TWO cameras!!!Just two cameras and my class has 42 students. How do we operate under such circumstances? How do we learn the basic television and radio techniques practically when most of us have no idea what a professional camera looks like, what a voice recorder looks like. How do we go out into the field of journalism without knowing all these basic elements? Most people in my class cannot mount a camera on a dolly because we never put that into practise. The point I am trying to emphasise here is that the university and the department do not have the required resources. Is it that they do not care or is it that there are no funds, no money to buy the equipment? Mr Vice Chancellor and Mr Dean of Faculty, what is happening?

In the age of new media surely our “internationally acclaimed university” should keep up with the latest technology. There is therefore need for the university to provide wireless internet connection and personal computers in order to catch up with these technological advancements.

In our university, each department has a computer laboratory where students are able to access the internet and do their research. I do not know anything about other departments but the journalism department has less than 50 fully functional computers and out of this figure some cannot even access internet. We are only given a single slot to access the internet for our research and it is 2hours long. Surely, how can we be expected to do all our research in two hours every week?

To top it all up, the wireless internet connection is as good as useless because it is always down. If it is not down, the signal strength is extremely poor. How then do we go about our new media practical projects when we are having difficulties accessing the internet? How do we research for our projects? Why then do we pay hundreds of dollars as tuition if we don’t have access to all these basic needs?

We have a very tiny library where we are supposed to read and research, but what do we read if we only have 5shelves of books available for the entire department? We are unable to get the books we want and we cannot access the internet as an alternative source of information, so what do we do as students? Not all students can afford to go to internet cafes or have their own internet at home. So what happens to those students?

We need to see improvement in terms of resources for the benefit of the prospective students and those who are remaining after us. Vice chancellor and Dean of department please help the students of Nust by making the learning environment conducive for them and their programmes such that they can become good at what they do in their respective fields.

I am very proud of the Lecturers from my department because all they do is try their best amidst all the struggles in our learning environment and somehow we have made it through. Thank you all for making learning a little better for us regardless of the prevailing conditions.