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Student protests against structural adjustment in Lesotho

The World Banks imposing of the structural adjustment programmes and its involvement on the cuts to public education taxes has negatively hit both students and teachers alike in many parts of Africa, in which the rise of protests has unfortunately led to case of violence from the police, which will be further mentioned throughout this article. Ever since the emerging of these structural adjustment programmes, many universities in Africa have been hit badly by "neoliberal market-oriented reforms" that have engaged with structural adjustment, such as Lesotho. Much of these student protests involve the fact that the government of Lesotho lacks the sufficient funding support those who want to attend higher education at the National University of Lesotho. Although this article will focus on mostly student protests and student experiences, a more marginalised group will also be mentioned, this being the disabled students of Lesotho, and the fact that their neglect in the school system is already quite high, and will continue to increase without the proper funds to solve this.

Role of the World Bank

To provide a level of context, from the 1990s, through the World Bank, many countries in Africa, such as Lesotho, would aim to use the imposing of the structural adjustment programmes to revitalise economic growth and recovery. Unfortunately, this attempt to do so would largely hurt the public education sector, "all funds to public education were cut; many teachers and other academic staff were retrenched and wages were frozen". This would then lead to the formation of the Committee for Academic Freedom which would "defend the struggles of both students and teachers" that would attempt to fight for equal rights and access as North American and European youths".

Use of violence within the student protests

To reiterate, due to Lesothos adopting of the structural adjustment programme, the basis of the protests come from the "governments alleged failed to cover student fees and pay allowances" which has met the dissatisfaction of many students, describing it to be unfair Violence has been reportedly used against students due to the outbreak of these protests from the police, to the point where one alleged student has unfortunately faced "critical condition in hospital" as a result of the unrest. The impact brought from structural adjustment has been persistently highlighted by the National University of Lesothos Student Union, in which the "government inaction to act on previous demands" had prolonged the events of protesting until a significant change happens. The scene of many of the protests was extremely dreadful, with police continuing to take fire at those who were protesting and retaliating.

Students with disabilities

Able bodied students already face difficulties with allowances and failed demands of the government. Students of disabilities will have to face this, alongside many more of the problems they face and potentially will face while in a classroom. The unfortunate aspect of this comes from how due to the fact that mobility challenged and other students with disabilities are already extremely under-represented and marginalised in Lesotho, they do not have a voice sufficiently collectively protest together for the extra costs of the disabled. Due to the student protests against structural adjustment, it is likely already overshadowing the issues that the disabled may face. Research articles based on the student experience for those with disabilities in Lesotho have used interviews and focus groups to observe the challenges that are plausible to not being solved by the government for a long time due to their failure to meet the demands of students as a whole. This involves an "inaccessible built environment; lecture timetables are not adapted to suit the needs of students with mobility challenges" and much more. Universities in Lesotho likely will not not sufficiently cover the costs and fees needed to support the environment of the disabled in campus, and with the battle of students against structural adjustment, it has not helped the case of this marginalised group, and will negatively impact those who are disabled and are not being sufficiently having their basic fees provided for by the government.

5 Sources for Bibliography

https://sussex.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44SUS_INST/1idjcfu/cdi_crossref_primary_10_1080_03057070_2020_1794391 Highlights the influence of neoliberalism on universities and its students, such as through the structural adjustment programmes that were imposed by financial institutions. This article is also prominent in highlighting the different forms of resistance that were used from different people, ranging from countering arguments, to jeering very vulgar songs

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1260983.pdf This extract highlights a lesser known issue occurring within Lesothos, which are those who are mobility challenged, in which are a very small minority of people within this region, making it difficult and near impossible to form any meaningful sort of protest to help support the mobility challenged, both socially and academically, as the system and the treatment of these people based on the answers from interviews and research groups leaves a lot to be desired

https://lestimes.com/chaos-at-nul/ This source simply maps out why there where such rebellion among students, which revolved around the fact that there was a lack of funding to provide allowance for all of those seeking higher learning, meaning some people would be unfairly left without an allowance

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/A_Thousand_Flowers/2ol_ZwOJLlUC?hl=en&gbpv=0 Signifies the role of the World Bank and the country's adoption of structural adjustment programs (SAP) and how teachers too were negatively impacted by what the World Bank had imposed. Much of the public staff faced retrenchment, and also faced frozen wages due to the fact that public education funds were cut

https://billsnaddon.com/2017/04/12/lesotho-university-suspends-classes-after-student-protests-turn-violent/ This source recognises the violence used by soldiers on campus against protesting students, acting rebellious due to government inaction to act on previous demands.