Ikegbunam, Peter Chierike

In spite of the fact that the University system is an organized entity where rules and regulations are put in place to properly guide the students’ entrance and exit, there exist University drop-outs around various localities in Nigeria causing one problem or the other in the larger society. Inside the various Universities in the country, there are hundreds of thousands of problem candidates that the University managements cannot comfortably and academically fix. These figures keep multiplying every year as new students are admitted into the University system. This gives a sign that something is wrong somewhere.

Engaging in a stiff enquiry into the causes of these challenges facing University education in recent times, Chief Emma Oforle, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science of the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam told our education correspondent that fresher’s University orientation through which new students are indoctrinated into the system has been relegated to the background by several institutions. We also gathered that it was through orientation that the University management educate the new students on the workings of the University. Educate them on what to do at any given time and how to approach any issue that is going to be an obstacle against their academic pursuit in the University.

Chief Oforle further  noted that students of nowadays do not know the works of their academic adviser whose role is next to the parents of the students. It was the academic adviser that the students run to once the parent are less active to meet the student’s demand in order to stay in school, he added. So many students lose their admission because of their parents’ inability to pay school fees.

Officially, this is not supposed to be so. When your parents are unable to pay your school fees, there are modalities through which that can be handled. The University lecturer went further to state that a student whose school fee is not ready should know that before the commencement of examinations. He or she should write the University authority through the academic adviser including the contact of the parents stating when the parents will make the fee ready. This letter will help the academic adviser to check on the parents and confirm actually that they have financial handicap and minute to the University authority that it is a genuine excuse. This student will be allowed to write exam by the University. It is not when examination is next Monday you rush to the Vice Chancellor (VC) or the Dean to ask for waiver to enable you write examinations. It has a modality and the University is aware of the processes. Lack of proper orientation costs students this knowledge.

Further Oforle told our educational correspondent that the mere fact that a student is indigent does not mean that the students will lose his or her admission. “There are modalities for that” he said. If you gain admission and your parents are poor to the extent that they can’t sponsor your education, you can write the school management explaining your challenges adding your parents’ names and locations. This letter will be addressed to the VC, through the Dean of students Affairs and the Head of Department (HOD) for permission to write exam. This letter will be submitted to the authorities at least three weeks before the commencement of examinations. The time frame will enable the management to investigate the submission made in your request. If they are true, the University might offer you a job with your SSCE and pay you some token to be able to study in the school. This one is automatic employment when the student graduates. It is in every University and lack of its knowledge among the students contributes to the number of drop-outs in the society and these are the things that the University management should teach the students during the two weeks orientation in the University.

Similarly, a student who had resumed school and along the line had either financial or health challenge, can write a withdrawal letter to the University and in the letter state his challenges asking the University to give him or her the chance for medical treatment before returning to continue with his programme. You don’t leave the University on the ground that you have health challenges or financial challenges and end up a drop-out. Situations of these kind are provided for in the students regulations to safeguard the welfare and smooth delivery of academic programmes in universities. Unfortunately, the orientation courses for new students are not taken seriously and many students do not even get to attend the programmes. Students end up being ignorant of the workings of the university system where they room and grapple with untoward challenges with little or no guide. Some university managements nowadays pay little or no attention to the plight of these students thereby and that is why the number of problem candidates will keep multiplying by the day. 

Considering the rate at which the students park beehives of carryovers, the lecturer disappointedly said, “My people die for lack of knowledge”. He continued by saying that there is what they call add and drop card in the University. As an academic student, it is your primary function to check your results promptly to know where there is a problem. The University is unlike the secondary school where there is morning and afternoon assembly through which information are passed to the students. This very fact makes the use if notice board very important to all students. Make your notice board a routine activity, possibly daily to remain informed. if you suspect that you have a problem in a course that has not been released, go to your examination officer and obtain your add and drop card. Register the course that you are afraid of and then wait for the exam. If the result comes out within a short time and you passed, then you can go and drop the course but if it comes out and you have deficiency in the course, you are at advantage. The essence of this Add and Drop card is to help the students manage their time so that by the time the results for the course will be released they will not be closed behind the window.

My dear students, how have you been grappling with personal and class challenges in your school? Were you properly informed about the workings of the system? Were you given Students Manual or Regulation in your school? Have you been thrown out of examination hall because you did not secure 75% attendance to lectures? Did you leave school for medical treatment elsewhere without permission? Or you went in search of school fees but could not raise it on time. You returned and were asked to repeat a semester or a session? These are the intriguing and career killing excruciating experiences of Nigerian students. These students pass through agonies without the guide of the university check measures attending to them.

My dear students, there are procedures and regulations to guide and take care of your challenges. Learn to ask questions and seek advice from counselors. Your academic adviser, the dean of students affairs and even other categories of staff in the university are there to guide. Stop complaining around the campus and put your challenges down in ink on paper. Many schools have students work in aid for indigent students. Take advantage of those modalities and complete your programmes with less stress. The wider society is cruel for those who could not complete their academic pursuit. Get and study the manuals to be properly guided in schools.

Ikegbunam Peter Chierike is an education correspondent of Omor Renaissance. Reach him @ p.ikegbunam@yahoo.com