This week we witness the start of the academic year in higher education. With some pomp and circumstance, it was, fortunately, the Vice-President of the Republic, Esperança Costa, to teach the wisdom of the event in which several academics, politicians, students, promoters of higher education institutions and other guests were present.
Unfortunately, despite all the frenzy that exists, the opening of the academic year, in any educational institution, also ends up being a moment of pain. In Cycles I and II, tears come from those who did not get a place. The same is repeated at higher education level, with still few vacancies, especially in public institutions, aggravated by the bitterness caused by the increase in tuition fees at private universities.
During the opening, as always, it is always good to see academics, many of them dressed temporarily or accidentally as politicians, walking around the corridors and platforms, some of them even in the institutions where they taught, where even many of their former students only see them on television. , newspaper pages or on the news websites that now abound.
Stage for the acquisition and production of knowledge, a certain distance has long been observed between politicians and these centers of excellence, where not even in the most competitive periods that require some penetration, such as elections, do they become a field of intervention for those who have their mission is to sell dreams or, at the very least, enlighten students about the steps they intend to take for the country.
In other latitudes, sometimes yes, sometimes not, the interest of both those who run the country and those in the opposition is visible in making university students partners or preferred targets in order to be able to ‘impose’ their governance ideas. In fact, it is not in vain that we observe the recap of teachers and even students highlighted for certain State or corporate functions or even as figures who later join groups that want to present themselves as alternatives to the processes of change.
Angola, fortunately, has recently been placing on the market and also absorbing thousands of young people – and even individuals on the verge of old age – into the market and absorbing into these institutions, who are presenting themselves as critical of current policies and promoters of protest movements.
Politics and academia cannot be separated. It is necessary for politicians to always be present, in a good way, on this stage of excellence and academics to always produce knowledge from which citizens, in this case Angolans, can benefit, especially in the most dramatic moments such as those we are experiencing in economic and social.
Some say that one of the titles that lasts the longest over time is that of professor. It spans decades. And he will always accompany all those who were once in this position transmitting knowledge, as well as those who once sat on the other side absorbing knowledge. This is why politicians, at any stage and whenever necessary, must return to the university to seek the solutions we so desperately need.
