Opinion Column
It is a matter of note that a system could only be said to be healthy when all its constituent parts are healthy. Our TVET colleges like our bodies may suffer headaches that may affect the whole body to function as it should. A system is never partly paralyzed; an anomaly in administrative matters in either the Department of higher education, a college or service providers should be a tell tale of more rot on the ground.
The link between colleges and the world outside is natural though not always moral or rational. Colleges are academically responsible to the Department of Higher Education (DHET), for Human resources related issues they link to the ELRC for which they can be called to account; for labour practice you have the captured unions. Sickness in each will affect the other components.
If a principal or campus manager acts illegal, unfair and unjust to members of the college without consequences, the problem would most likely be located in the DHET or other links in a chain. All lecturers under that principal or campus manager will also act with impunity because corrupt people protect one another.
In most TVET colleges lecturers are hired because they know someone in that particular college. It does not end there; promotions do not come as a matter of merit but because one is a yes man or as a pay back for being under the back and call of college managers.
Unions, DHET officials and college managers are often in collusion and no one would dare upset the apple cart for fear of being side-lined and stigmatized. Many staff members would prefer to feign a blind eye to corruption and maladministration that happen under their nose for fear of victimization.
Learning material are not delivered in time, people are made temporary for years on end, services rendered are of poor quality and all the wrong things are done to ensure enough money is available for kickbacks. There are cases where people act in a senior position for more than 2 years despite the law saying otherwise.
Union members because of their collusion with principals often sacrifice employees to safeguard their ill-gotten financial benefits. In positions where money is involved, only lecturers with no scruples are preferred to aid and abet their corrupt handlers.
A few years ago, the country witnessed killings in some colleges when senior staff members fought over tenders and procurement proceeds at the expense of students. Floor tiles are replaced even though they are still in good condition simply because the contractor would be willing to pay kickbacks. Corrupt lecturers write exams for students; officials of the DHET fake a blind eye to their cronies at TVET colleges and the rot has now engulfed universities.
Indeed, the beautiful ones are not yet born as Professor Aikwei Ama put it. Theft, corruption and nepotism have their grip on colleges, unions and the DHET. In a country ravaged by insanity as ours, no link in the chain is untouched by the rot.