Opinion: Timely Suspension of Dpt Examination Unnecessary 

 

 

 

According to the Student Union Public Relations officer, Students are treated like slaves by the school management considering the kind of treatment given to the daily part time students. Mr Ogungbade, Director of exams had corrected him that they are not. Isn’t it, now? It is only slaves who don’t have opinions. Going by Mr Ogungbade who said a servant is better than a slave, servant always has opinions, though may or may not be welcomed.

 

While the protest of the Daily Part Time was not an aberration in civil society, the management of the institution could have averted how it ended up disrupting the examination calendar and process.

 

The signals were clear and at the commencement of the examination a large number of students had not paid their school fees those that paid had issues with their portal and they couldn’t access their portal. It is about time the school get a competent portal manager that can solve all portal related issues once and for all, not the one that relies on the expertise of others. The issue of the portal is not the discussion for today it is one of the setbacks that the management must fix as a matter of urgency.

 

Machiavelli opined that there is no such that is good. Everything is evil. But what happened is, we have greater evil that can be caused catastrophe or mayhem in society, and we also have lesser evil, that can only cause evil that will not cause much destruction. In point of fact, students of daily part time are always responsive, sensitive and because of their numerical strength can cause mayhem if not properly managed. Crisis management should be top on the activities of the management when dealing with students generally and every issue must be addressed as a matter of urgency and attention. Like many have stated the school seems much more concerned with generating money from the daily part time wing than properly screening the number of students it admits. Campuses are centres of character reformation and bad eggs must be allowed to corrupt the good one, whilst there should be a thorough screening of the students and engaging them in programs that can arrest bad vibes are essential.

 

Let’s get to the message, the management decided to undermine the students by choosing greater evil that can further sabotage the already sour situation this is without properly finding out issues that stopped students from paying their school fees, I hope the management check the excessive of the portal manager as their facts and figures that students are regularly being overcharged and asked to pay bogus fees before their issues are resolved.

 

 

Mark you, the number of the regular students cannot be compared to that of the part-time students as there have been arguments that the new policy had worked for the regular students. The school generates more from the part time students considering that they admit more and thousands of students are in a class most especially for departments like Mass Communication, Business Administration, Science Laboratory technology and others. The school should also bear in mind that there are so many students on the part time wing most especially at the ND 2 level in their thousands, some screened students, others just coming to school under disguise and some wearing the character of students just to extort their parents.

 

 

Part of the Daily Part Time was denied entry into the examination hall because they had yet to pay their tuition fee. These said students are in their second year and of course, their last year in the institution. There is no way these students can escape not paying their tuition fees even if they were allowed by the management to take their examination. Because they have many things to lose or do without which they won’t be able to do them.

 

First, if they don’t pay, management can say, they will not be allowed to take the second-semester examination which is a final examination. Hence they won’t be able to submit dossier files which is a major requirement on the polytechnic as submission of files is still manually.

 

Secondly, Management may say they will not be allowed to clear their results although this will take time, they will end up getting their money back. These possible actions management could have decided to take may have minimised the cost and materialised the management father-and- children relationships with the students.

 

For sure, any students having a problem to clear their National Diploma result would not dare to obtain HND form to proceed with their academics. And that could have solved the issues. The students who missed their examination on the first day could have been made to do it again(although this is not the culture of the polytechnic except those highly placed who can pay their way and engage in untold malpractice).

 

Considering that if certain things had been considered there would have been any course for the issues and suspension of the exams. The uproar at the PLT lecture halls, disruption of the lectures to the suspension of the examination would have prevented and students wouldn’t have been injured. Take for example the suspension of the examination until further notice is another embargo to students academic progress.

 

Management could have considered that there are some students among the protesting students who are as harmless as water. Why would specifically affect the general? Why would the protest of some students after others, when there is another means, management would have subdued the agitation of the protesters and as well continually gratify the thirst of other students?

 

“We never wanted any trouble, our protest is to agitate for us not fail, for us to be considered, the country is not favourable at all. I heard one of the lecturer’s sayings, our parents have given us the fees at home, we have spent it. How sure are they? How sure? We have many amidst us that don’t have hostels, that scout at their friend’s place. We have many whose means of getting daily meals is not certain. We have some getting it, by themselves, how else can you generalised that we have spent the money. Of course, we may have some who may have spent the fees, of which, I don’t know one. Yet, many of us don’t have it”.

 

The students are much aware of the implications of not writing the exams and the cost effect is tantamount to an extra year and one who had not paid for a current academic year how will the person for an extra year.

 

“You can help us. When it is not as if you’re not a human being. How can we not be allowed to do the examination when failure to do it is an extra year for us. We will need to pay the tuition fees and still pay fees for an extra year and other fees. Ah! Consideration matters in all!”

 

But if the management had taken the students as sons and daughters and had maintained a father-and-son relationship, the examination wouldn’t have been suspended, the issues would have been addressed and all possible ways out created.

 

Enoch Oyedibu is a Nigerian Journalist and publisher of PIJAONLINE. Reach him here: oyedibuenoch73@gmail.com