Africa-Press – South-Sudan. Several students at the University of Juba told Eye Radio that their exams scheduled for today were cancelled amid heavy security deployment during the court trial of Dr. Riek Machar and other SPLM-IO leaders.
The students said they were told to return home by the university administration without further explanation, but they believe the decision was linked to the highly anticipated trial at Freedom Hall in Juba.
Speaking to Eye Radio this morning, Ayak Mariel, a Medical Laboratory student at the University of Juba, said she was shocked when the dean announced that exams would not take place.
Ayak expressed her disappointment, saying she had prepared the whole night only to be sent home.
“We were not expecting that. We were not prepared for that. We only were surprised this morning to find out that all the roads were blocked. We were planning to find our way to the university and finally making it to the university, we were shocked that even our lecturers could not make it.
“Some of them were blocked. Some of them were blocked at the far end of Custom Campus. Even if you are footing, you are not allowed to come from Custom Campus to Main Campus or from Main Campus to Custom Campus. It was something that we were not expecting,” she said.
She blamed the government for continued disruption of university activities and urged authorities to respect academic schedules.
Ayak also called on the government to use alternative venues for its events rather than Freedom Hall to avoid interfering with the university.
“I don’t know why the government decided to block the roads or much. I really don’t know why Freedom Hall has to become the courthouse when we have a courthouse in the country. So, I was asking if at least they could be better with the citizens. I think they should reconsider our feelings. And they should minimize on disrupting our daily activities,” she added.
Another student, Agany Geng Ayiei, a fourth-year Journalism student, said the disruption of exams undermines the education sector in the country.
He called on the Ministry of Higher Education to ensure proper communication with the university to avoid such last-minute interruptions.
“My message is going direct to the government, especially the Ministry of Higher Education, that is in charge of the university. Actually, as I said earlier, you know, education for this country to move on forward in future to be one of the best countries in East Africa, we have to prioritized education. Uundermining education is not fair, is not good. So, urge the government when they are doing such events, they need to make earlier preparations and inform the administration of next to avoid such occurrence,” he said.
According to media reports, security forces this morning closed several roads, including the Ministries Road, Custom–Konyo Konyo Road, and Beijing–Buluk Road, ahead of the trial of Dr. Riek Machar and his co-accused officials.
The university administration has not issued any official statement on the exam cancellations at the time of broadcast.
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