It remains in national interest for the School of Journalism and
Communication (SJC) to remain in Kigali. ILLUSTRATION | JOHN NYAGAH |
NATION
In a surprising move, the University of Rwanda is planning to
relocate the School of Journalism and Communication (SJC) from Kigali to
Huye.
The school was relocated to Kigali in 2011
following a Cabinet decision and after agreeing that the move was “in
national interest” as the Cabinet paper that introduced the request
stated.
While the decision hasn’t conclusively been
taken, it’s my view that it remains in national interest for the school
to remain in Kigali as the reasons that justified its relocation are
still valid today.
But before illustrating why it would
be retrogressive to take the school back to Huye, suffice it to note
that the relocation doesn’t only affect journalism but the entire
College of Law, Economics and Governance.
And the
decision is based on recommendations from the taskforce set up by prime
minister last year to study the university’s rationalisation undertaken
in 2017 leading to complaints from some of the affected.
While
the reasons for relocating the college are plausible, including the
need to contribute to the development of Huye as a Secondary City and
optimally utilise university facilities there, keeping the school of
journalism in Kigali is comparatively more beneficial to the nation.
My overall view then is that while the rest of the college should move, the school shouldn’t. And here is why:
First,
while the recommendation to move was triggered by recent institutional
restructuring, there seems to be limited institutional memory to
understand that the school’s relocation in 2011 followed a deliberative
process that included all stakeholders.
Specifically,
the demand to relocate the school began after President Paul Kagame met
journalists at a two-day closed door discussion at Village Urugwiro in
mid-October 2007.
After the meeting, the president
promised “to ensure the process to open a media training centre in
Kigali as one of the efforts to build capacity in the media.”
Following
the meeting, Prof Laurent Nkusi, then Information Minister at the time
and later, his successor, Hon Louise Mushikiwabo engaged the university
leading to the creation of the Great Lakes Media Center under the school
and subsequent school relocation.
Second, the Cabinet
Paper that led to the relocation, which at that time was presented by
the then minister for Education stated, in part, that “the SJC needs to
be near the place where most practicing journalists are located” in
order to address the “visible low writing skills on the part of
practicing journalists, limited understanding of the basic principles of
journalism and ethics as well as low intellectual capacity”
Further,
the Cabinet was told that “there is an overwhelming demand from
policymakers and media practitioners to move the SJC to Kigali to help
train practicing journalists and improve their writing and reporting
skills.”
Finally, the paper noted that “moving the SJC
to Kigali would both facilitate the NUR’s policy of generating its own
funds while facilitating the policy of cost-sharing by enabling students
to get part time jobs in Kigali where most of the media houses are
located”
Seven years later, there is evidence to show that the decision has a direct impact on media development.
For
instance, while in 2008 the school had about 150 students with less
than 0.1 per cent of them working as journalists, today, there are about
380 students and more than 50 per cent of them working as journalists
and editors.
Moving the school back to Huye will not
only mean loss of jobs for students, but probable decrease in the number
of privately sponsored students as many might be unwilling to relocate.
Third, the move might undermine education policy. If
the policy is for education to impact the industry, why relocate the
school when it’s already doing so?
Fourth, in
discussing the move, its clear journalism education and practice is less
understood as some policymakers posit that the reasons given to justify
keeping the school in Kigali can also be given by anyone in any field,
say law or economics!
Journalism is probably the only one where one can be allowed to practice before graduation.
For
instance, while there is no undergraduate law student that can be
allowed to be an attorney or a judge, most of our journalism students
are already practising journalists! This is because journalism is an
art; a practice not theory.
Christopher Kayumba,
PhD. Senior Lecturer, School of Journalism and Communication, UR; Lead
consultant, MGC Consult International Ltd. E-mail: ckayumba@yahoo.com; twitter account: @Ckayumba Website:www.mgcconsult.com
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