By Sylivester Ernest
The Citizen Reporter
Dar es Salaam. Celebrations to mark the 50th Anniversary of the University of Dar es Salaam yesterday were dotted with pomp and protests.The University’s Golden Jubilee saw two of its prominent alumni, Presidents Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, in attendance.

The two distinguished guests, who arrived at the campus separately and well behind schedule by about four hours, were received with banners from a section of students as well as put up with spells of heckling from the angry young scholars outside the famous Nkrumah Hall.

The incidents,  however, did not impede the colourful Golden Jubilee which went in tandem with the honouring with awards of the first 13 students of the institution, including first minister for Justice Julie Manning.Constant booing from the charged students kept interrupting President Kikwete’s speech as he reiterated his commitment to fighting the challenges facing the education sector in the country.

He said the country has made big progress in the sector and that more efforts were being made at finding solutions to the remaining challenges.

The President cited the expansion of students’ enrolment at both secondary and higher education levels as one of the successes in the right direction that has put the country at par with her neighbours.

He said the government’s resolve was more visible in the schools dotting almost every ward in the country as well as the construction of the University of Dodoma, among others.The efforts, said President Kikwete, aimed at fighting off the nation’s three archenemies, namely: ignorance, poverty and disease.“Our decision to give top priority to the education budget shows our commitment to addressing these challenges,” he said.

With regards to higher education, the Head of State said that in the next five years, a higher education development programme would deal with staff development, rehabilitation of existing infrastructures and construction of new ones, provision of teaching and learning materials, ICT application and research and outreach.  

Mr Kikwete said the implementation of the programme would require an annual investment of Sh52 billion and that despite being a tough challenge, his government was determined to do it, with the support of development partners and the private sector.

On the University of Dar es Salaam, Mr Kikwete said the government would work closely with the institution’s administration to tackle such challenges as limited student accommodation, lecture rooms and lack of a students’ centre.

For his part, President Museveni congratulated Tanzanians for having such a prestigious institution.
He said his country had benefited a lot from it with most of the top legal practitioners in Uganda being the alumni of the UDSM.    

“This university has made great contribution in the legal profession in Uganda where most of the Ugandan Judges including the Chief Justice were here,” said President Museveni who arrived in company of his wife Janet, who also studied at UDSM, and Mrs Rebecca Garang, the widow of the late Liberation fighter, Dr Colonel John Garang, first President of Southern Sudan. Dr Garang was also a UDSM alumnus.  

The fete saw the attendance of high profile dignitaries, mostly alumni of the University, including the United Nations Deputy Secretary General, Dr Asha-Rose Migiro, retired President Ali Hassan Mwinyi, ministers, diplomats and pioneering professors of the university. The institution was opened for the first time on October 25, 1961, barely two months before Tanganyika independence.  

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