By: Annakleta Haikera
UNAM’s part-time students have called on management to reverse connectivity restrictions following a change in service providers.
The students say that while they welcomed a switch from Telecom to MTC, the latter has restricted their access to WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Zoom, which they argue are important online assistance apps.
The students are disappointed with the new MTC data connection cards, while some have headaches over the new cards. They also said the restrictions were made without their consent.
The restrictions only allow the learners to use the data connection on Moodle, Google search engines and Twitter, while they say most of their communication is done on WhatsApp, where they create E-learning groups with their lecturers and other students.
When speaking to The Villager, Hans Mukoya, a second-year student doing part-time, said the new cards are very stressful.
“We feel it’s going to be costly to purchase data to go to other social networks such as YouTube while knowing we have cards that we pay, but it’s restricted. At first, when I was told we were going to get MTC student data cards, I thought the best internet would help us, based on MTC’s fast networking, but it came as a disappointment because there were only a few apps on the cards.”
He further said part-time students depend on the internet most of the time, but if the cards are restricted, they are unsure how they will manage to do their assignments on time.
“We need all the networks, such as WhatsApp, YouTube and Facebook, where we get most of the projects and news. Previously, we would use all the necessary networks with the TN Mobile even though it was slow. Doing distance is a very difficult thing. You only depend on your phone and social media to see if you can secure information on the work given to you. WhatsApp is where we inform each other on the due dates of our assignments and assist each other in many ways.”
Mukoya claimed the university did not tell them about the restrictions, but it was announced that they would have their own gigs, and the rest would be strictly for e-Learning.
“We were very excited thinking MTC is the messiah, and it’s going to save us from the slow network that we were dealing with from TN Mobile, but then we got very disappointed by having so restricted cards.”
Another part-time student who chose to stay anonymous said their lecturers fail to show them some materials that they can get on YouTube.
“They also don’t do much on our online e-Learning. Mostly, the SRC makes the announcement on WhatsApp for the part-time student classes. We feel WhatsApp is the best communication. We do communicate with others on our WhatsApp educational groups. To think these cards are restricted; it’s another headache. Twitter has been around for 10 years, but we have never been interested in joining it. How do they expect us to join it now? A lot of bundles for Twitter; what will we do with it? The whole N$575 every month is just going to waste.”
The National Student Association’s (NASA) secretary Shivera Muhepa, last month, requested for the improvement of the MTC student data connection.
In a letter sent to Unam’s finance administrator and resource mobilisation Ellen Namhila, Muhepa raised issues of not providing students with the right communication.
He also called for the office to engage MTC to improve its service and add all the students’ apps needed. “Students that have enrolled on part-time mode use YouTube to watch tutorials and use WhatsApp, Telegram and Zoom clouds for engagement and communication. Moreover, UNAM and NSFAF have verified Facebook and Instagram accounts for communication.”
