Dubbed the ‘University of Chaos’ by The Weekend Nation newspaper this other day, the chaos is now manifesting in its mighty grandeur as reports emanating from the University’s main campus at Chirunga in Zomba indicate that special needs students which include students with visual impairments and literally physically disabled students have been denied access to campus accommodation for the semester commencing early next month.
According to the President of the Students body Humble Bondo, the concerned students have intimated to him that if they will not be given preferential treatment as has always been the case, they will drop out of school thereby impacting their right to education.
In a statement released yesterday, the Students Representative Council (SRC) stated that they were flabbergasted by the turn of events regarding the status quo for disabled students.
Reads part of the statement issued by SRC yesterday which Shire Times has a copy of:
“SRC has also learnt with great shock, anger, and sadness that some students with special needs have been left out on Campus accommodation. This is gross irresponsibility on the part of Management responsible for these campus allocations and as SRC, we promise to fight for the rights of our brothers and sisters with a disability, come what may.”
There is no immediate reaction from Alfred Banda, the University’s Communications Officer but human rights organizations in the country say are closely monitoring the situation and they hope those students with disabilities will be assisted else they will have no option but to force the University to put into action what it teaches in as far as human rights for those with disabilities are concerned.
Shire Times has learnt that the students were forced to re-apply for campus accommodation for the semester commencing next month and the results have been released by the University Management where surprisingly they have left out students with disabilities.
