12 students have been suspended from Makerere University for engaging in a strike, on Monday morning.
 
 The suspended students went on strike to oppose the university’s decision to continue with online learning even after the economy was fully reopened last month.
 
 While announcing this decision, Makerere University Vice-Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe noted that the university is not obligated to resume full face to face learning in classes as e-learning is part and parcel of the university’s Modus Operandi.
 
 On Monday morning, the police engaged in running battles with a section of Makerere University’s leadership body that was protesting the University’s decision to continue with online learning.
 
 The student leaders claim that this mode of learning should be abandoned in favour of face to face classes now that all COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted.

“This morning, a group of around 20 students disrupted classes and engaged in other acts of hooliganism. I have suspended 12 of those students. And, I will suspend all the others when they are identified,” Nawangwe told the media.
 
 But the tough-talking university vice-chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe expressed displeasure with these students whom he says were begging the university to continue with this mode of teaching last year.
 
 “Two months ago, the same students were petitioning that they do not want to come here. They wanted to do exams online because of COVID-19. This means that they can access these services,” Nawangwe says.
 
 Prof Nawangwe points out that e-learning was incorporated into the university’s teaching mode back in 2015 and is therefore not a new thing.
 
 “Even before COVID-19, we have had programs that have been running fully online. Students do not even come here,” Nawangwe says.
 
 
Whereas the university is also working out modalities on how to bring back face to face learning, the administration says that this will be based on the level of vaccination of the students.
 
 “You are all aware that we have lost some of most senior researchers to COVID-19. That happened when students came back. Before students came back nobody was falling sick. The moment they came here, we lost 4 senior researchers,” Nawangwe told journalists.

For the students who were complaining about the functional fees, saying that they should be scrapped because they are not going to be on campus full time, the professor points out that the University is considering not increasing these to meet the rising cost of expenses that come with implementing e-learning.

“We have resisted the temptation to increase the functional fees because of the extra money we are paying for some of the things, “ Nwangwe says.
 
 He also points out that Makerere University is not the only institution of higher learning that has decided to continue with blended teaching following the outbreak of COVID-19.