Will the HAT end up killing all of the six universities in Madagascar?

Does the HAT State really have the choice when cutting down on supplies to universities? The problem is primarily related to money. As for the University of Antananarivo, for example, only 24% of the year 2012’s budget supposed to come up to Ar 53 billion, are anywhere visible. The institution, its faculties and schools, may expect to survive. Medical students were entitled to the lion’s share, because they have benefited from their training allowance. This favor was granted due to a preventive measure against striking paramedics fighting for claims which do not please the transition.

As for scholarships, all students are entitled to the same fate. Nothing in sight. Four months have gone without a single penny entering any pocket. Tensions are moreover on their way up since some faculties are planning to tackle examinations in mid-November. Those ones have indeed started the academic year before everyone else, namely  in May 2012. But the same equipment allowances amounting to 66,000 Ariary supposed to support students into purchasing whatever needed to tackle the year have withered.

The University of Antananarivo happens to be caught into a debt circle. Neither printing and electricity bills nor its other suppliers may expect to be paid the way they should be. In 2007-2008, Ankatso was generously put back on the right track, and newly able to pay its electricity bills. Everything came to an end when the Transition began its rule. The Jirama company tried to put pressure up by depriving the campus from electricity, but the drastic measure happened to be far too unpopular to be maintained.

Why does the academic year in Madagascar actually develop over one single year, namely from March to November when everything? Easy! Because the Finance Ministry cannot afford to patch a budget up over two years at once. Could courses be running from October to June, the ministry would not be capable of basing its prospects on a couple of different finance laws. Scholarships are a major issue since such a right happens to be granted to every student, apart from  . One scholarship amounts to 22 000 up to 50 000 Ariary.

University violence

In the run of new clashes at the university, people got wounded, one of them seriously at the head. The dispute involved Ankatso’s students Ankatso and taxi-be drivers and recipients. Students demonstrated to claim their scholarship and seized the opportunity to denounce the incoming urban transport ticket price rise. The result of this confrontation is for sure no match for the clashes between students from Antananarivo and from Ambilobe at the University of Antsiranana. The dispute originated from a casual home related issue, claimed however the extraordinary number of thirty victims.

The HAT did think something up anyway concerning the university, namely some facilities supposed to serve students as homes, but merely for the sake of saving its face. The ruling power favored its armed forces at the expenses of university professors; a situation which caused serious delays into the academic years 2011 and 2012. The blank year might have been avoided, but transitional graduations are not likely to be as valuable as usual. The announced construction of one new university in Antsirabe is everything but a good luck chance for the six others which may get ready for further shortages of supply