Africa-Press – Lesotho. Adjustments to electronic learning (e-learning) have racked havoc at institutions of higher learning, data affordability being the primary challenge. The problem resulted in a strike
at Botho University (BU) on Thursday as students claimed they do not afford to buy data. According to BU’s Students Representative Council (SRC), Minister of Gender Tumelo Rampote, students at Botho last received data
allowance of M550 in the previous academic year. He said the National Manpower Development Secretariat (NMDS) funded them for only one month because they
closed earlier than other institutions. BU’s SRC President Palo Sekoale indicated that since the adoption of e-learning, learning has not been effective but students show a positive participation.
He said the biggest challenge is with resources, mostly data for downloading big files like a 100mega bytes lecture video or document, yet again it still needs
to be send back as an assignment. He said the school is in the process of creating platforms where lecturers and students will send their work where then
assessments will be made. Asked on how students have been learning before their first lump sum in the previous years, BU’s SRC Public Relations Officer (PRO) Mohau Lepolesa said they usually depend
on their parents’ allowances but this year there seem to be too much expenses to incur. The SRC at BU even made requests for subsidy from the university management, indicating that some students are from disadvantaged
families, therefore cannot afford data. According to BU Senior Manager for Business Development and External Relations ‘Mankhole Masisi-Thakhisi, the SRC gave
commands that learning process should stop, if the school cannot meet students with means for internet connection. In demand for attention, BU students hooked over to the university on Thursday in attempt to
destroy the premises, but were only able to burn the cooling point. “We asked the management to use part of the tuition fees to meet students with data expenses
while they await NMDS allowances but they did not consider our plea,” Lepolesa said. He said they, therefore urged the school to pause learning process until they
get allowances so that all students are able to buy data for themselves if the management cannot subsidize. From Lerotholi Polytechnic (LP), the acting Registrar
Monaheng Liaho said that they do not have a specific platform for online learning, but use the most effective mode, in this case WhatApp and emails for sending
and receiving learning materials. He said the response is positive up to this end except certainty on performance as they are still awaiting results. “However, just before the lockdown,
most of the programs were at the practical level and internships though they could not proceed,” Liaho said, showing that most modules were almost over before examinations since they continued with
classes in groups. LP’s SRC Academic Minister Mohau Senyane picked the most challenging factor as data expenses. “The amount of data used for downloading a single document costs
a lot, rather than when we have access to school campus Wi-Fi. As much as students are eager to learn somehow some aspects such as submissions are not always on time
for reasons pertaining to internet connectivity and technology failure or the cell phone itself being problematic,” Senyane said. In the case with BU, Council on
Higher Education (CHE) Lesotho and the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) were consulted to intervene on the prevailing situation and advised that schools should pause until NMDS disburses funds.
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