In the aftermath of price hiking for printing of study materials for students in the distance learning mode with the Open University of Tanzania (OUT), the Ilala regional centre students’ body has teamed up to establish a stationery to provide affordable printing services.
Unlike at the moment, students are compelled to seek such services at exorbitant rates in city stationeries for students seeking printouts of study materials issued by the university in soft copy.
The centre is raising funds from well wishers including academicians from within and outside the university to help capitalize the shop, enabling students to get printing services and buy stationeries at lower price.
In a meeting taking six hours, OUT Ilala centre officials and students’ organization officials agreed on setting up such a shop.
Augustine Emmanuel, the regional secretary for OUTSO Ilala centre and the OUTSO deputy president Faraja Kampambe urged students to contribute Sh5,000 each so as to facilitate the capitalization effort.
OUTSO officials expect pricing of printouts of study materials to come down to Sh4,000 or Sh7,000 instead of commercial charges of Sh20,000 at present. That made it impossible for students to print out softcopy materials for 14 major study areas annually, they said.
The idea of establishing stationery shop by OUT Ilala regional centre has come about amid a newly introduced system by the OUT management which it has introduced of issuing study materials to their students in soft copy instead of hard copy as it used before.
However, an official from the OUT who preferred anonymity when contacted for comments from the main university campus said in a telephone interview that due to increased number of students’ admission at the university, the management is not able to issue hard copies to their students and thus requires them have printout from soft copies provided by the university.
He noted that the policy of the university requires each student to have own computer or laptop everywhere in order to read their materials issued in soft copies. But unfortunately not all 40,000 students admitted yearly in all the faculties at the university are able to afford laptops, thusin view of this they have to seek for an alternative.
He further stated that despite having computers erratic power supply is a common phenomenon in the country which has affected the use of ICT tools such as computers. In view of this, there is a great need of having materials in print form.
The Director of the OUT Ilala regional centre, Dr. Helen Kiunsi told The Guardian on Sunday in an exclusive interview yesterday that students at the centre have been encountering problems of stationery services during printing their study materials due to rising costs.
The centre requires capital of approximately Sh. 12.5 million to establish a stationery shop which would serve about 1,500 students in her area, with about Sh. 1.5 million collected so far from well wishers, the director added.
