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Student protests against structural adjustment

Overview

The issue of Student protests in Africa is nowadays a fairly niche topic, especially in an area such as Lesotho, in which its very minuscule location hidden inside South Africa often goes unnoticed by the majority of people, with the media often paying closer attention to the issues of students in the Western world as opposed to Africa. In this case study, the mobility challenged, but more importantly the university students face issues that the government allegedly are not fully attempting to solve. 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. This is extremely likely to increase without the proper funds to solve this. To continue on, many universities in Africa exploit the neoliberal reforms that are similar to 'laissez-faire' American politics, whereby there is an encouragement of effectiveness and competition with minimal state intervention. Many attempts in Africa have been made by students to protest against such structural adjustments, such as in Makerere University in Uganda, where the increase in tuition fees sparked very militant feedback from students and families. Strikes are often used during these protests, which the Mosothos (citizens of Lesothos) attending the University of Lesotho (UoL) used due to the governments apparent lack of attempts to solve the issue of the lack of funding to provide an allowance for all student at the UoL, which is the basis of the student protests faced at Lesothos.

Student protests against structural adjustment in Lesotho

The World Bank's 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 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. The fact of the mattter is, much of these student protests revolve around the fact that the government of Lesotho lacks the sufficient funding in order to support those who want to attend higher education at the National University of Lesotho.

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. This attempt to do so would largely hurt the public education sector, due to the fact that "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 Lesotho's adaptation of the structural adjustment programme, the basis of the protests come from the idea that "governments alleged failed to cover student fees and pay allowances" which has been met with 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 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 the fact that the 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 a wide variety of ethical research methods such as interviews and focus groups to observe the challenges that are extremely unlikely to be solved by the government for a long time to come due to their failure to meet the demands of students as a whole. Answers that came back from this research 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 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.

General Conclusion

The level of impact that the structural adjustment programs implemented in Lesotho universities has meant many have suffered greatly. Students have had their higher education halted, academic staff have had their income affected, and even the police and the government have lost a great amount of trust from the Lesotho public. The future for higher level education for the Lesotho youth looks bleak, with brutalities impacting the youth that will be difficult to move past from. The overall outcome of the structural adjustment program implemented at Lesotho has led to nothing but violence, chaos and uncertainty for all groups.