The University of Namibia Neudamm Campus students have voiced their disappointment in management for not aiding them in the ordeal of not having access to the internet for almost three months.
The Neudamm Campus and farm is the leading agriculture training campus, with excellent facilities for training of students, communal and commercial farmers as well as agricultural communities.
The facilities are further used to advance research in agriculture.
The Campus is renowned for providing training in agriculture to most leading farmers and well-known agriculturalists in the country. The SRC also stated that it is highly shocking and disappointing to mention that almost every month of last year and this year, there was a report of unstable internet connection on the hostel premises.
SRC secretary general of the campus Maxwell Keja said it has been almost three months of poor or no internet connection on campus, with the majority of the students on campus having online classes.
“We are forced to seek internet connection in the library, which is only open for several hours (08:30-19:00),” he added.
Keja said: “Most of the internet devices (TN cards) received by the students to supplement online classes are not loaded with data or its functionality is affected by “poor network tower coverage” and despite all these barriers affecting students’ academic life, there has been a less efficient response to address all these issues.”
The council said dozens of official communications on the instability of the Wi-Fi connection, particularly in the hostel blocks, were made via emails to different management offices since 2019, including the Computer Centre, Estate, APVC and Campus Dean. Unam’s spokesperson John Haufiku told Youth Corner yesterday they are aware of the students’ concerns and have engaged with the campus management several times to discuss the issue.
“We can confirm that heavy rain and lightning destroyed some of the university’s infrastructure, which makes internet unavailable in the hostels. As a consequence, there is currently no internet in the hostels. However, all other facilities have internet access, but we do understand that they want to study in their rooms. This matter is receiving special attention,” stated Haufiku.
He added that this has become a seasonal problem – and as such, campus management has explained to students that it had begun with the procurement process to have UPS installed at the campus.
Haufiku said: “Electricity supply at the campus is also being looked at and we are likewise in the process of engaging service providers to ensure that these frequent damages caused by lightning are solved. We apologise for any bad experience students may have expedited, but we urge them to use the faculties that have internet whilst we attend to this problem.” – psiririka@nepc.com.na