Makerere – School of Law at Makerere University has resisted a call from the institutions Vice Chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, to increase its intake.
The principal of school of law, Dr Christopher Mbazira, said almost half of his teaching staff have never had an office at the school from where to attend to students, keep their materials and prepare for lectures and mark.
“Our staff attend to students in their vehicles and use the same when waiting to do lectures. It is now more than 10 years the school continues to operate in constrained and unsafe space, infested with termites and a leaking roof,” said Dr Mbazira.
“A few years ago, the ceiling of the principal office collapsed, the administration block is a health hazard, the School of Law building is condemned,” Dr Mbazira wrote in his July 20 reply to Prof Nawangwe directive that the school increases its first year enrollment from 320 to 500.
Prof Nawangwe in a letter dated July 17 directed Dr Mbazira, the school principal to admit 500 students in the law course to enable the university raise enough revenue.
“The fall in revenue has seriously constrained university activities. The purpose of this letter is to request the School of Law to admit a total of 500 students in the first year for the LLB [Law Course] degree for the academic year 2018/2019 (250 day programme and 250 evening programme). Management will provide the necessary teaching space to handle this number of students,” Prof Nawangwe wrote.
He decried a drastic fall in the University revenue collection saying it has crippled implementation of its activities.
However, the school’s principal, Dr Christopher Mbazira, refused the directive saying the school does not have space but hopes that they will be able to increase their intake when they allocate them space at the newly constructed Central Teaching Facilities.
The explained that almost half of the teaching staff at law school have never had an office at the school from where to attend to students and prepare for lectures among others.
He slammed the administration of taking the money the school had saved to create more teaching and office space adding that now lecturers attend to students in their vehicles
“It is now more than 10 years the school continues to operate in constrained and unsafe space, infested with termites and a leaking roof,” Dr Mbazira in a letter
Prof Nawangwe promised to provide teaching space since it has increased 40 times from what it used to be in 2006 after the construction of two central teaching facilities to accommodate more students.
The Law school has a number of about 1,500 students and according to Dr Mbazira, should the university decided to enroll more students, his 35-memebr academic staff will be overstretched which will ultimately compromise delivery of quality education.
