Some final-year postgraduate social work students at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) say they completed a whole module without attending a single lecture or sitting for an exam because of a prolonged lecturers’ strike.
UZ lecturers have been on strike since April, demanding better pay. Most are reportedly earning under US$300 a month, a figure they say hasn’t moved in years.
Students enrolled in the postgraduate diploma in social work were taken by surprise when, on June 30, they were told that one of their earlier assignments would count as the final exam for the Community Health for Social Workers module.
The course was supposed to be taught by a lecturer named Chikombe, who only shared a course outline via the class representatives back in April. After that, no in-person classes or online lectures were conducted.
According to the students, their course coordinator, Mavuka, messaged the class representatives on June 30 requesting the individual assignment listed in the outline. That assignment was later marked and logged as the exam result.
One student, speaking on condition of anonymity, expressed frustration over the situation, saying they had expected proper teaching and assessment, not an improvised workaround. Added the student:
He was the one behind making students not sit for the exam because he wanted to punish students, who rejected his move to impose a class reprentative that student’s did not want.
The students told him that he could not impose a representative on them in November, 2024.
On July 15, there was a board meeting attended by lecturers from the department of social work to deliberate on marks of an examination that was never set and a course that was never taught.
This board finalised these marks to be uploaded as examination marks for the students.
More: The Standard
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