Education is a right - protesting students at Universities in South Africa

“I sit in my History class trying to concentrate on the lecture, but the worries of what lies just outside the doors keeps me on edge. I hear them in the distance, chanting, banging, and bellowing:
“No classes! Get out! Free education for the masses!”
It’s got nothing to do with me, I assure myself. I am just a student who through hard work and talent earned myself a spot in this institution to learn and qualify in my chosen field.
Suddenly the doors to the lecture hall burst open and in rushes an angry mob of students wearing hoodies and cloths covering their face. I am frightened and sit stunned in my chair. They bang on the tables with their sticks, they push up on the students sitting in the bottom row:
“Get out! You don’t learn today! Education is not a privilege!”
A wave of white smoke ignites. Protesters have fire extinguishers and they are not afraid to use them.
Students panic and scatter, scrambling to the closes exit. The lecturer is nowhere to be found. We are left to defend ourselves.
I sit and hold my ground and wait. It is my right to be educated.
Satisfied the protesting students move on. I and a few others are left to make sense of what has just taken happened.
Is this the reality I must face?”

The future of tertiary education in South Africa is uncertain and fearful.
Free education in this country is but a Utopian concept willed by those who for decades have felt the oppression of the ruling minority. In theory we are a free and fair land. Equality and opportunity to all, but in reality this is not yet so.
Universities are speaking of closing their doors for 6 months! Others will not even consider new enrolment for 2017. Where does this leave all those that have worked so hard to complete their year? What of those who are in their final year and wish to enter the work force in 2017? And what of those foreign students whose visas expire and have to return home with an incomplete qualification?

Let the students voice their rights in a humane and constructive way, but let the others continue to learn, to qualify and go on to contribute to society. Our economy desperately needs it.
When is the answer to problems ever intimidation and vandalism?
And where is the government in all of this?
Quiet as a mouse.
They watch from their ivory tower as the supposed leaders of the future battle it out on the ground. Tertiary institutions are not capable of meeting the protester's demands without going under. The government must take responsibility for what they promised when they were elected. Communicate with them, find common ground and take the necessary steps to wisely bridge the gap between the privileged and previously disadvantaged.

I qualified in my profession 10 years ago from a well-established tertiary institution. I was lucky to receive an uninterrupted, quality education. But what of those today? And what of those in the future? Anxiety greets these thoughts as I think of what my daughters will experience in their future.
Will quality education still exist?
Will there be free education for all?
I hope for a brighter future for all learners.
Education is a right.