adminSenior Reporter
Officials at the Korean-funded Seke Agricultural Training Institute (SATI) in Chitungwiza want to close the college after students rioted following revelations just a few days before sitting for their examinations that they had studied the wrong syllabus.
The students could not stomach that they failed to write the examinations after spending their academic year concentrating on the wrong material.
The students, who are boycotting lessons, are also demanding a package they said was promised by the institution’s leadership at the end of their one-year course. Last week, the college administration had to call in the police to control the students after they ran riot.
The 32 students who have failed to sit for the Hexco examination for the one-year National Foundation Certificate programme will have to write in March next year.
The students were enrolled this year from vulnerable communities in Mashonaland East and were supposed to train in agriculture and later use the skills to start their own income generating projects. SATI is offering a free national foundation certificate programme in agriculture, free food, boarding facilities and uniforms to the students. The students’ representative Mr Gilbert Mukwena said they felt cheated by the college as they spent half of the year learning the wrong syllabus.
“We are not satisfied with the learning environment. We were made to pay US$150 as commitment fee for the whole year, but we are getting bad food and not even carrying out practicals.
“We only carried out three trips to the Pig Industry Board along Mutoko Road, Keffalos Plant in Harare and Karumazondo Farm in Marondera.”
Another student said he could not stomach the fact that he spent a whole year learning at the college and had nothing to show after studying the wrong material. The students said they were promised some money each after graduation so they could start income generating projects, but that was no longer the case.
SATI chairman Mr Jaeheung Choo said he was not well conversant in English and as a result he communicated wrongly to students. He said he told the students he hoped to award excelling students with a package so that they could start self help projects.
Online Reporter