Africa-Press – Lesotho. It has been six months since the commencement of the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology (LUCT) 2021/22 academic year, however some of the students are still yet to receive their allowances from the
National Manpower Development Secretariat (NMDS). The academic year began in September 2021 and in October the students launched a protest pertaining to their allowances being delayed.
Later the allowances were disbursed, however about 100 students were left in the cold. In an exclusive interview with Informative Newspaper, LUCT Student
Representative Council Vice President Tumisang Ngatane highlighted that the academic lives of the 100 students have been affected negatively by this. He
mentioned that the response that they received from the NMDS was that the school delayed to send the list of sponsored students to NMDS, “But stated that
they are still working on the matter and will resolve it soon,” he added. “Some of these students have not been coming to school as they do not have transport.
Other students were lucky enough to have received their lump sums and are now fighting very hard to get their monthly allowances while others have not even received
their lump sums. On behalf of LUCT management, LUCT Senior Marketing Executive from the Marketing and Communications Department Makhenene Harris mentioned that the management is
aware of the situation and has therefore requested for an urgent meeting with NMDS to discuss about the delay of the allowances and map a way forward.
“The lists were submitted in time to NMDS but they kept coming back with queries. At
this point there is no specific number known to the institution management as the Finance Department is reconciling the lists with NMDS, also there is no
assurance from NMDS but Limkokwing is hopeful that this will form part of the meeting agenda,” she concluded. Meanwhile, the National University of Lesotho (NUL) students have as well not received
their allowances. About 1000 of them are left clueless whether or not by the end of their academic year which is July 2022 they will have received their
allowances. NUL StudentsRepresentative Council Acting Secretary General Kama Ramututu mentioned that about 800first year students have not received their
allowances and some have not been confirmed to be sponsored by NMDS. “Our government seems to have turned a blind eye regarding this situation as nothing
has been done to resolve our problem. NMDS said the school admitted a lot of students who have passed the quoted list of sponsored students. The management did not
address this issue in a profound way, instead what they did was dismiss us from the campus after the strike that we initiated hoping to catch their attention,”
he noted. Ramatutu said that even under those circumstances they are still expected to show up to school. He pleaded that they should be provided with rent money since the allowances seem to take a longer time being processed.
For More News And Analysis About Lesotho Follow Africa-Press
