Youth development initiatives to capitalize on social media

By Karen Gwinisa

The introduction of mobile internet has caused many youths to become addicted to social sites to the extent that most youths in urban areas are living the greater parts of their lives online.

While social networking sites help youths remain in touch with other people by facilitating cheaper and faster ways of communicating, they have also made youths become anti-social to their immediate neighbours. As a result of economic instability and deindustrialization in Bulawayo, most youths in Luveve are unemployed. However, they seem to be content with their situations as long as they can keep in touch with friends in the virtual world.  As such, technology and social media is creating a society of isolated individualistic young people offline.

While there is a lot that young people can learn online, there is the danger that parents have no control of the kind of advice these youths get online so they are left vulnerable to being misled. For instance, some sites also act as online dating platforms that expose youths to immoral activities such as pornography. In some cases this results in them engaging in early sexual activity exposing them to STIs, HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancies. 

A brief survey with young people from Luveve showed that young people have no interest in the youth center as they feel it is boring, has outdated equipment and no interesting activities that are attractive to them. 

Therefore it is critical for young people themselves to revolutionize the youth centers and lobby the relevant stakeholder to avail new advanced technology that will be attractive to youths. Given the fact that the youths in Luveve are already spending most of their time online, initiatives in the youth centers could be focused on giving them knowledge of how best they can use social media and the internet to develop themselves by finding opportunities online rather than focusing on immorality.

Karen Gwinisa is one of the youths trained by the NYDT in citizen journalism and effective use of ICTs. She is currently doing her A’levels and writes in her personal capacity.   

Statement by NYDT on the decision by NUST administration not to admit students who have not paid full tuition

The NYDT has received with grave concern, the plight of students from the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) who were last week sent away by university authorities for not meeting their full tuition fees obligations in time for registration.

Thousands of students, many of them from outside Bulawayo, had to travel back home empty handed after they were greeted by a notice on the campus walls that there would be no fees payment plans for students for the first semester of the 2012-2013 academic year.

Many students owing from the previous semester and some disappointed by the cadetship scheme after government reneged on its earlier commitment to help students with loans to pay their tuition fees, were suddenly told they could not pay the $200 they have usually paid before registration nor could they sign for payment options as has been the case in previous semesters.

Despite keeping students abreast of registration dates and tuition fees amounts over the institution’s website and Facebook account the university decided to keep mum on the changes to the payment plans leaving many students who had travelled back to prepare for the new semester stranded in without an immediate solutions to their problems. 

Zimbabweans have always complained that university fees are too high and pleaded with government to revert back to the old system of offering college students grants to help support them in their studies. Instead the government has made the situation worse by suddenly stopping the student cadetship scheme which allowed students to study on a loan basis. The current situation is greatly disadvantaging the majority of current and prospective students forcing many of them to get into risky behaviour like unprotected sex with older men or women to meet their tuition needs. As such, education has become a preserve for the elite depriving many young people the right of access to higher education.

Therefore such a move to bar students from attending lectures due to failure to pay tuition fees in full cannot be condoned as it is not only discriminatory but also retrogressive. It threatens the country’s ability to invest in future leaders by providing them with education. While it is appreciated that the university has expenses to cover in order to provide quality education to the students, it should also be noted that the majority of employees in Zimbabwe are earning way below the poverty datum line. As such, there is need to come up with amicable solutions to such a crisis that will see benefit for both the university administration and the students. 

In consultation with a number of university students from Bulawayo, the NYDT would like to implore the university to consider allowing the students to pay the tuition fees in instalments throughout the semester. This would ease the pressure on the paying parents /guardians and at the same time allow the smooth flow of the university calendar without compromising the quality of education the students receive. After all, the students will be forced to pay the full tuition regardless of whether they were allowed to attend lectures during the semester or not. 

Also, the university must work on its methods of communicating with the students to avoid miscommunication and confusion. This will help address issues of taking students by surprise  when  they read such notifications at the university campus on registration day rather than getting notified well in advance. 

We strongly recommend that government plays its part in subsidising education costs in order to ease pressure on the students and allow every deserving young person an opportunity to get an education. This is inclusive of paying fees for the students who are on cadetship in time and increasing the number of such beneficiaries.  It is the responsibility of government to provide such opportunities to its citizens and as such government needs to play a major role in ensuring education for all, bearing in mind that a country that does not invest in the education of its young ones is doomed.  

It is the hope of the NYDT and of many other young people in Zimbabwe that the university will desist from  chasing away students but rather will engage them in coming up with solutions that are of mutual benefit.