About Rules of College Management by Everest Turyahikayo
The Novel, “Rules of College Management,” tells the story of Uchoyo, the principal of Talaka College of Philosophical Studies. Uchoyo joins the college after competing for the job with himself. Two days after reporting, he holds a meeting with the senior staff to gauge the extent to which they appreciated problems affecting the college. Luckily, they raise petty issues, something that not only surprises Uchoyo but also excites him.
Uchoyo finds in place a system of admission tests for new entrants which most applicants are failing. The high failure at admission coupled with the high failure rate in philosophy examinations acts in concert to taint Uchoyo’s image. He abolishes the admission test and students and parents are overjoyed. The admissions numbers quadruples, and the council which met after a while instructs him to organise a symposium. He organises it but declines to invite them. At the symposium, he invites his girlfriend into a hotel room. In the middle of the night, the girl suffers from an epileptic attack, and Uchoyo thinks she is dead. Bayuuni, his subordinate save the girl by fanning her for close to half an hour.
Uchoyo continues to grapple with multitudes of students after successfully abolishing the admission test. He strategically exploits the problem to his advantage by earning hefty travel allowances under the disguise of benchmarking in non-existent colleges. Uchoyo also embarks on travelling abroad for vacations every two weeks.
As time goes by, the government directs that all money collected from public colleges should be deposited on an account belonging to the ministry for pecuniary affairs. Uchoyo is vexed and has no option but to comply. However, he introduces alumni fees and ensures that students deposit the fee onto bank account of which he is the principal signatory. Uchoyo and Fedha squander the alumni subscriptions which creates jealousy among some equally greedy but deprived senior teachers.
He starts facing internal revolt most especially from Mwongo, one of the teachers. Mwongo who sees herself as fit to replace Uchoyo embarks on a blackmailing and bad-mouthing campaign. The alumni cash turns into a curse by increasing agitation from Mwongo who feels she is excluded from the eating. However, Uchoyo’s favourite successor is Bayuuni, Mwongo’s rival. Mwongo designs an ambitious plan to annihilate her perceived rivals.
In order to curb the revolt, Uchoyo opens another campus in the eastern part of Talaka city to hire his new breed of workers who should pay allegiance to him. His primary objective though is to offer jobs to his jobless nephews and cousins who continue camping at his home in demand for jobs. Uchoyo divides his time between the two campuses. Whenever he is stressed up, he travels to the annex campus where he has built a second home.
The internal revolt from staff intensifies and high failure rates create agitation among students. In order to appease disgruntled staff and students, he tinkers with the normal grading system. More students score first class degrees. For staff, he introduces birthday parties and allowances for newly born. While many students score first class degrees, an error in the tinkering pushes many students into pass degree category who would otherwise score second class.
Uchoyo nears retirement, and Mwongo intensifies her ambition to replace him. She clobbers Bayuuni, her rival, with a block after a reconciliation meeting, Uchoyo chaired. Bayuuni dies in hospital after spending a week on treatment. Mwongo is arrested and during the trial process, Judge Kabisi finds Mwongo not guilty by reason of insanity and he refers her to the community facility for the insane elite.
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Author Bio:
Dr. Everest Turyahikayo holds a PhD in Knowledge
Management. He published his first article in the
school journal while in form two, 1995. The article’s
title is, “Boarding schools are better than mixed
schools.” He has nurtured passion for college
management. The same passion has given birth to
“Rules of College Management.”
For over a decade, the author has published non-fiction articles
about Knowledge Management, philosophy and research. These
publications have also inspired the author to write this novel. The
next novel titled, “Disguised Assassin,” will be published in early
2024. Some selected articles are listed below.
Turyahikayo, E. (2021). Philosophical paradigms as the bases for
knowledge management research and practice. Knowledge
Management & E-Learning, 13(2).
Turyahikayo, E., Pillay, V., & Muhenda, M. B., (2021). Antecedents of
Knowledge Sharing Behaviour in the Public Sector. The Electronic
Journal of Knowledge Management, 19(1), pp. 33-42.
Muhenda, M.B. & Turyahikayo, E., (2021). Advancing Knowledge
Documentation and Application for Public Sector Transformation:
The Role of Management Support and Teamwork. IUP Journal of
Knowledge Management, 19(4), pp:7-40.
Turyahikayo, E., (2019). Using Sensemaking Technique to Construct
Scientific Explanations in Organizational Research, American
Journal of Applied Psychology, 7(4): pp. 167-172.
Turyahikayo, E. (2019). The Influence of Knowledge Management on
Internal Quality Assurance in Higher Education Institutions, Higher
Education Research. 4(6): pp. 80-87.
Turyahikayo, E. (2018). Bureaucratic Rigidity, Risk Aversion and
Knowledge Generation and Utilization in the Public Sector: Reality
or Illusion? Management and Organizational Studies 5(3)
During his leisure time, Dr Everest Turyahikayo will be playing a piano, doing gym or playing football.