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(NYASATIMES) Chanco petition on quota system

Chanco petition on quota system
By Nyasa Times
Published: October 24, 2009

INTRODUCTION:As the legitimate and patriotic sons and daughters of the Republic of Malawi, we the concerned students of Chancellor College, The University of Malawi would like to renew our stand against quota system-cum-equitable access to higher education.

It is in the interest of justice, fairness, peace, unity, transparency and harmony in our beloved country that we have thought it prudent to jot this petition on behalf of all patriotic and sober-minded Malawians.

Our gesture of foresight needs to be construed as a venture aimed at upholding the integrity of UNIMA and should be interpreted as an endeavor destined to culminate in rationality, transparency, wisdom and intellectualism that bring orderliness and hence national development can easily be realized.

Driven by patriotic impetus, we object at lobbying a bifocal perspective into the meritocracy vs. quota system selection into UNIMA saga – after all it is our constitutional right and above all else an exercise of our unequivocal freedom of opinion and expression.We realize that no ideology is blemishless as the architects of the same are just humans who are not omniscient. We also know from history that quota system was there during Kamuzu Banda’s era but had to be kicked out due to its inefficiencies.

In view of this, we strongly hold that if the origin of meritocracy was due to the disadvantages of quota system then we will join hands with all stakeholders and focus in the same direction in a bid to oppose the abrupt re-introduction of quota system.Furthermore, unless thorough analysis and wide consultations are done, an impromptu re-introduction of quota system is a non-starter because it aims at treating the symptom rather than the cause of the disease. This poses a threat to the already sick education sector.

Moreover, the delay in releasing University Entrance Examination is a blow to the deformed academic calendar of the university’s constituent colleges. For instance, Bunda College is about months into the new academic year but without first year students on campus.In essence, we are disillusioned with and disappointed by Government authorities, who act from their cocoons, advocating for an impromptu re-introduction of quota system at the expense of meritocracy without a thorough consideration of the consequences of such a blatant policy shift.

Chancellor College as a mouthpiece of justice and custodian of intellectualism, the concerned students find silence at this critical moment inconvenient and uncalled for. We believe that silence and inaction in the face of yesterday’s challenges are responsible for the anomalies we see across the educational sector in our beloved state.

As such, we do not seek to play the usual game of just listing the problems but join our voices with that of professional people who give their ears to what happens on the ground, who listen to people, observe, analyze and chart the way forward that takes the reality into account of what is really missing. We, therefore, call all partners in the educational sector to consider the common good over personal fears and greed.

ARGUMENTS AGAINST QUOTA SYSTEM

We observe that neither meritocracy nor quota system is the right dosage to the ailment(s) in the nation’s educational sector. However, the devil you know is better than the angel you do not know. We realize that the significant problems we have in the area of access to higher education cannot be solved at the level of thinking with which they were created.It is very unfortunate that the government is quite fighting a hide and seeks game on issue of quota system.

The whole of last year the government kept quiet after the system was challenged, only to impose it on the UNIMA authorities at the time of selection this year. We thought the best way would have been giving the citizens of this nation enough time to access, evaluate, analyze and scrutinize the pros and cons of the system and see whether it would be worthy implementing. In fact, the process and speed with which quota system issue is handled compel any rational being to suspect sinister motives behind the scenes.Paradoxically, the same Government authorities have come out of blues, imposing the retrogressive system.

By virtue of such demonstrated conduct, and unless they come in the open and spell out their rationale for advocating for this system yet they have not put up the necessary structures on which system will be premised and how it will address the unjustness of current merit system. Thus, we will remain and live to question the intellectuality of some of the personalities.Some people have argued that quota system basing on the district of origin is a solution towards increasing access to higher education and equity to distribution of resources.

Such thinking is certainly simplifying a rather complex issue and a naked attempt to hide the dirty linen that surrounds tertiary education in this country. Such kind of idea/opinion is a fallacy and must not be tolerated.Nobody can contest the acknowledgement that there is discrepancy in resource distribution as far as education is concerned. The inequality is manifested in geographical location whereby rural schools have relatively limited learning and teaching materials as compared with urban schools.Besides, regardless of district of location, some schools (national secondary schools) are better off in all aspects than CDSS’s. Furthermore, some well established Private Schools and high schools can not be matched in all spheres with the so many mushrooming briefcase Private Schools.

All this attests to the fact that inequality in access to higher education is woven in the limited access to quality secondary school education in due respect to the specific secondary school one attended rather than the district of origin from which one comes or attends his/her education.Quota system, if not handled properly as is the current scenario, will just plunge our country into intellectual debility and national division as it is the case now. The system in itself is politically deceptive, economically fatal and socially disintegrating.

It is in every average person’s domain that there are political, economical, social, religious and cultural differences among Malawians that cordially mix and accord our country “the warm heart of Africa”. This social fabric should be encouraged and cherished and not be made a benchmark of discrimination as far as access to higher education is concerned. Those who are for quota system overlook the fact that development is a process with a starting point but without an end.

Development is not necessarily a government’s value judgment which it imposes upon its people, for it is a well known fact that at times the government can be the main obstacle to development. Notably, for human potential to be realized, people need to be inspired so that they may revamp the potential in them and therefore be mobilized to go through the lane of action that breeds development. However, this cannot be achieved overnight, that is why we are against the impromptu reintroduction of quota system, and in lieu call for sober approach and long term plans to improve equity and access to tertiary education.Even from religious perspective (both Christian and Islamic viewpoint) somebody will land in God’s kingdom based on merit in addition to the grace of God. God does not care where people come from or how they look.

Instead, he minds about the internal being because we are equal in his eyes. Who are we therefore to deviate from meritocracy, it being practiced by our creator? The Holy Quran similarly stipulates that, “a ruler who appoints any man to an office, when there is in his dominion another man better qualified for it, sins against Allah (God) and against the state.”

This is the practice which any just, peace, and unity loving government or state should be following in its policies.Above all, it is a plain point that an efficient system operates with clean and transparent rules. Good governance operates in an environment where laws and administrative practices are known and accessible to all. We, therefore deplore the manner in which the Government wants to impose the infamous quota system. There is the greatest need to employ the empirical approach to discover the realities on the ground by widely consulting relevant quarters.

Further, constitutionally the quota system is discriminatory and grossly violates a student’s right to tertiary education based on equal application of admission criteria as intended in the UNIMA Act Section 111 (5).

It should be stipulated without fear or smug remorse that Government authorities move to impose quota system is a move destined to culminate in breach of peace or stir of public alarm and disorder.The Concerned Chanco students therefore would like to ignite Government’s institutional memory that there is already a high court ruling of 1993 (Mhango and others vs. university council, civil cause No 93 of 1993) against a quota system where some patriotic university students successfully sued UNIMA. Hence, resolving to impose the reintroduction of the system in all livelihood, amounts to contempt of court.Furthermore, it seems some scholars have taken a very long ‘intellectual’ stride towards bastardizing meritocracy while waxing lyrical about quota system. Yet the question still yearns: If quota system is the solution, why use it on a small scale. Why not employ it throughout the selection process? Also one wonders that if the policy is as good as it has been magnified why not universalizing it in all government sectors beginning with the process of electing our state presidents?Again, if quota is to achieve justice by equitably distributing access to higher education how unjust can one say has been the merit system? Who unjustly benefits at the expense of whom under merit system? Risibly, protagonists for quota system argue that university education is a national cake. Really laughable! In our humble understanding, the national cake is the educational resources in the name of books, teachers, and school buildings. These are the resources government has to distribute equitably to various education institutions, starting from primary school and leave its citizens to compete on merit. This is because the quota system is not addressing any problem or injustice, thus not praiseworthy for implementation. For it is very unjust to create access for Peter at the expense of Mary, yet Mary has not sidelined him (Peter) in anyway. The most just, fair and sustainable way of assisting Peter is by accessing and evaluating his problems and finding actual solutions to his problems without necessarily limiting the chances for Mary. This, in our thinking is the track or the route to the palace of justice.The analogy of national cake is misused as if there is a certain group of people who are in control of national cake and deny others a chance to it. Yet, in actual sense, the cake is always in the hands of government and every student is striving for it. Now, if some students are denied this chance based on where they come from, where is justice? We are completely opposed to this fallacious, misleading, sugar-coated analogy.

A story is told. Two students, one from Nsanje and the other from Dowa meet at Box 2 (Dedza Secondary School) They are exposed to equal resources; same environment. They write Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE). The Nsanje student scores 25points and the one from Dowa scores 15 points. Imagine the situation where the quota of the one from Nsanje is full at 26 points while that of a Dowa student is full at 14 points. This means that based on Quota system the Dowa student will be left out while that of Nsanje will have place at the University yet their were at same school exposed to same resources. Where is justice then?

There is yet another glaringly fallacious argument saying every Malawian, from Chitipa to Nsanje, pays tax hence the need to share ‘the limited national cake’.

However, the truth of the matter is that we all have access to this national cake because meritocracy limits no tax payer to have the gate way to university. In fact these people forget one thing: No graduate works in their respective districts. They work in various government departments and non-governmental organizations, companies, with one virtue that defines us; Malawians first. In fact, it is the government that decides how to use tax. Perhaps, that is where quota has to be employed—-because we have seen some districts benefiting in form of road constructions and other infrastructure developments with others still on the waiting list.

RESPONSE ON PRESIDENT’S REMARKS

Your Excellency, our citizen number one, we appreciate that at last you broke the silence on this issue. But, up to now, we are still at pains to come to terms with the fact that you made those remarks with sincerity.

“The university selection system in the country is skewed. It has clearly favoured one region (Northern Region) and we believe it is creating discontent in other areas”. That was what you said your Excellency last Wednesday, as quoted in The Daily Times of October 15, 2009. These are remarks we find morally, intellectually, logically, and factually disparaging, Sir.

For starters, his Excellency just mentioned Northern Region is dominating without asking the obvious question, Why? Surely, by circumventing this question, either intentionally or unintentionally, his remarks spectacularly failed to acknowledge the root cause of the persistent imbalance in the entry to university education. Secondly, by arguing that merit system favours one region (Northern Region) his Excellency seemed to be committing a fallacy. We can’t understand, Sir, that a hard working student who has justly and successfully attained what he/she had been sweating for can be described as ‘favoured’. Or should we conclude that it is a crime to be a hard worker? Or, should we conclude that framers of meritocracy had prejudice against the Central and South in mind?Traditionally, we have believed that even the highest positions in society should be awarded to those who are best qualified. As quoted from above Quran states that a ruler who appoints any man to an office, when there is in his dominion another man better qualified for it, sins against God and against the State. Rewarding excellence both seems just to the individuals in the competition and makes for efficiency. We are made to raise this fact by your Excellency’s statement that the North has dominated for so long that a reverse looks an attractive option. By this, we believe most of the positions you accuse northerners of dominating are occupied on merit and not otherwise. Hence, any assault on merit is never welcome. In fact, if meritocracy is a curse, then quota system is to say the least, a disgraced curse.Again, your Excellency stated that the status quo on the selecting system is creating discontent in other areas. This again seems to be baseless as you fail to indicate what areas are discontented with this. History has it that since the issue was kept to rest in 1993, after the court invalidated it as discriminatory, there has been no conspicuous discontent by a certain area apart from the University Council chairperson and you, your Excellency, prior and post to elections. Malawians peacefully co-existed in the oblivion of the quota saga. In fact, most of us were reminded that the region of origin matters in the university education, just this year when quota system was came in a veil of ‘Equitable access.’ Hence the tense debate on the saga.Further, the first citizen called for a stop on the debate on the quota system describing it as unnecessary and divisive. The president downplays the fact that the very nature of the quota system is itself divisive. It is categorically indisputable that the system has its roots in regionalism. It has sparked debate and is orienting Malawians to regard themselves as Lomwe, Yao, Tumbuka and Chewa, rather than Malawians. The debate on quota cannot be condemned as unnecessary since it is an issue of national interest and hence intensive and sound debate must be condoned to ensure rational decisions that positively affect the peace, development, and economy of the country. It is gullible to suggest that any decision by government must be palatable to everyone.The president argues that the quota system is aimed at increasing equal access to university education. Pleasurable as it may sound, such a postulation leaves a lot to be desired since we do not increase access by robbing something from Jim and give it to Jack but rather by keeping Jim, and increase resources to bring in Jack.

RECOMMENDATIONS

In view of the foregoing, and for the betterment of Malawians, both the current generation and posterity, we would recommend the following:The tactics of seek and hide game within UNIMA as far as selection system is concerned should stop forthwith. Let the entrance examinations be released as soon as possible.That quota system must not be tolerated; in stead there is need to employ a holistic and empirical approach to tackle the problem of equity and access to UNIMA. Research accompanied by wide consultations must be conducted. The research agenda should be designed to uncover and address the needs of the nation and not just for intellectual advancement of some individuals. It is the findings of such a reality digging endeavor that will define the course of action to take.Neither meritocracy nor quota system is perfect on its own. However, the lesser evil is better than the extreme end. Therefore, all stakeholders especially those against the conventionally accepted meritocracy must come out of their shells and present their foreseen merits and demerits of both sides so that the nation can appreciate their pursuit. They should also inform the nation as to who has bemoaned the current meritocracy system and on what basis. Amid scarce resources that fail to cater for insatiable needs of the society, which of course shall always be the case, cost – benefit analysis should be carried and settle for the most productive, efficient and progressive system..It is a reality that access to higher education is limited. Yearly, more than 4000 candidates qualify to be enrolled into UNIMA but only less than 900 have the chance to step into university corridors. The main reason for the same is the limited capacity of our constituent colleges (bed space, limited lecture rooms, inadequate learning and teaching materials like computers, books etc.). A few among those who are left on the residential list are materially blessed and find their way into the university corridor through non-residential ship while others are left stranded in their respective poverty-stricken households.In view of this, the only solution lies in expanding the structures and capacity of UNIMA so that it accommodates all deserving students. However, we acknowledge that this cannot be achieved overnight but it is intellectually upright for Government to be working towards realizing the same rather than playing the usual game of seek and hide or blame shifting by using the escape-goat of quota system as the solutions to underlying problems.

CONCLUSION

The case for meritocracy has two pillars: one pillar is a deontological argument which holds that we ought to treat people as ends and not merely means. By giving people what they deserve as individuals, rather than as members of groups, we show respect for their inherent worth. The second pillar for meritocracy is utilitarian. In the end, we will be better off by honoring excellence. We want the best leaders, teachers, policemen, physicians, generals, lawyers and airplane pilots that we can possibly produce in a society. So our program should be “promote equal opportunity as much as is feasible in a free market economy, and reward people according to their individual merit”.

The concerned Chanco students are proud of those who have shown the country that oneness, sober-mindedness and broadmindedness should be the ideals to govern our society – and call on all others to remain true to the spirit of purposeful leadership.We stand together and vow to never slip away from objective to subjective intellectual debates filled with accusations and counter-accusations and promise to change things that are way out of the hands of the national capability. We recommit ourselves to doing everything possible at our disposal to prevent the bad precedence of letting ego-aggrandizement rule over objectivity. We will never relent to fight for the good of the nation come what may [come].It is our prayer that the blessings of wisdom shower upon our beloved state. Wisdom supersedes prowess in arguing out legal and intellectual ambiguities and shows itself in Godly judgment that brings peace.

On behalf of the Concerned Students against Quota

Timothy Pagonachi Mtambo………………………………
Patson Gondwe……………………………….
Simon Simkoko………………………………..
Makhumbo Munthali………………………….

Labels: EDUCATION, ELIMINATION EXAMS, EXAMS, NEOLIBERALISM, STUDENTS

posted by MrK @ 6:50 PM