From the horse’s mouth

Even Scrutator could not have been so candid.

We all heard it from the horse’s mouth.

The chairman of the National University of Lesotho (NUL)’s new council, Dr ‘Molotsi Monyamane, last week confirmed what I have always suspected: NUL is churning out half-baked graduates.

I didn’t say it.

Monyamane did.

If he wasn’t diplomatic, the good doctor could have said it bluntly that NUL has become a glorified high school.

I am sure many managers in commerce and industry will not be surprised by this serious indictment on what we had always thought to be our premier learning institution.

They have always known that the standard of graduates from Roma has hit rock bottom.

It’s just that Monyamane had the guts to tell it like it is. 

They have seen these people at work and they know what a jumble those graduates can cook up if you leave them unattended. 

A friend of mine tells me she has invented a new subject called Logic 101 for these graduates precisely because they just can’t do things logically.

She decided on this special curriculum after spending weeks teaching a few graduates to do the most basic of things like spelling words like “cheque” and “congratulations”.

So she wrote the first module: How to file papers, how to answer the phone, how to calculate percentage change, how to fill in forms, how to spell . . .

She tells me her graduates have made some progress within the first eight weeks.

Of course there was a time when NUL was indeed NUL.

Then, the college was producing graduates with substance.

You did not need to do thorough due diligence on a person to confirm that they were indeed from Roma.

But those days are long gone.

NUL is spawning legions of half-baked graduates and hooligans into our industry.

But wasn’t Monyamane expecting too much from this lot that has worked so hard to excel in mischief and protests rather than their studies?

What was he expecting from a college that holds mediocrity in such high regard?

This is probably the only university where many students go to their tutorials via the bottle store.

Where else do you get so many drunks in one institute at the same time?

At which other university do you find lecturers having night meetings plotting political games?

NUL authorities must accept, as the chairman has already done, that the university has gone to the dogs.

I know there are some students who are frothing at the mouth because of Monyamane’s stinging remarks.

I want you to understand that I feel your pain.

It hurts to spend four years in university and still have the mind of a Form E student.

Those zealots who insist that NUL is still a proper university are doing so out of crass ignorance that comes from lack of exposure.

To them NUL is the best because that is the only university they have ever known.

Issues that deal with women’s dignity are close to my heart.

This is why I feel sorry for those women who have been forced to resort to newsprint for their sanitary pads as one struggling pamphlet alleged this week.

But I take great umbrage at sub-editors who still cannot spell the sacred words “sanitary ware”.

The “sanitary wear” that was sprinkled liberally in that freebie that claims to be the people’s paper was quite embarrassing to say the least.

Still on embarrassing copy, there was this headline in the same paper: “Farmers challenge weather”.

What kind of farmers are these who want to play God?

Did they challenge it with their spears, melamu, knobkerries or knives?

Did they snarl at it?

Did weather put its tail between its legs and walk away?

The farmers are indeed very mean. 

I know writing headlines is not an easy job but this laziness or should I call it misguided creativity is quite embarrassing to say the least.

But the winner for this week came out in the sister paper’s angry editorial lazily headlined “Of tendercrats and tenderpreneurs”.

“Prebendalism is a paradigm of governance in which those in power bend the rules and reserve the lion’s share of national wealth for themselves,” oozed the editorial.

Why do our journalists want to resort to “shock and awe” tactics by using, at every given opportunity, big words that no average reader understands?

Is this supposed to be an indication that they are educated better than all of us?

The purpose of newspapers is to communicate.

The reason why people go to school is so that they can learn to simplify issues and not complicate them.

Scrutator is now wondering whether school had such an effect on our colleagues across town.

Quiz time for the Roma students who really think they are smarter than Form E students: Why do 80 percent of our MPs have pot-bellies?

a. They are overfed.

b. They are overpaid.

c. They have looted all our food.

d. They have become idle since becoming MPs.

While at it, please explain with clear examples why an MP who came into parliament weighing a measly 50kg is now tipping the scales at 120kg?

Answers will be provided next week.