Following the low turnout of the convoking students of the Faculty of Education at the just concluded convocation ceremonies, a meeting was held between the Education & English Language students of 2021/2022 graduating set and part adviser of Education and English Language on Tuesday 12th December 2023 at EBD 315.
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The purpose of the meeting was centered on the letter that the graduating class of Education and English Language wrote to the University senate on the absence of their names not on the convocation list. The Part Adviser, Dr. Awopetu, explained the outcome of his summons by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Simeon Bamire. Upon getting to the VC’s office, he met a letter that the students wrote, claiming he disregarded them.
According to him, he felt insulted by the use of the word ‘disregard’ since he tried his best to explain the situation to the students. A student, at the meeting, spoke about the letter being borne out of necessity as a result of the lackadaisical attitude the department has shown. According to him, the department did not disseminate any communiqué regarding the reason their names were not on the convocation list. Some notable points, as cited by the student, in the letter include:
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- Students could not apply for scholarships because of the delayed results.
- They want their results uploaded before the next senate meeting.
- The technical issue on the portal should be addressed.
However, the part adviser responded that if the students had good communication amongst themselves, they would not have written any letter to the senate, but rather write, do it in-house by writing a letter to the head of the department.
We Are Understaffed – Dr. Awopetu, Part Adviser
The part adviser, Dr. Awopetu, further commented on the shortage of staff in the department. He pointed out that they are understaffed, a situation in which he also attends to administrative roles.
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He admitted that the technical issues made the process more cumbersome as some individuals were migrated, by the system, to other programs such as Education and Social Studies, and Adult Education. Also, some restricted electives that were deleted on the portal were not deleted from the database, which made some students have outstanding courses.
Although some students were able to resolve their issues at the ICT Centre, it was too late to add their names to the convocation list whereby out of 125 students, 11 students have been solved.
Dr. Awopetu also said that he proffered a solution to the vice chancellor and the solution was that more hands should be employed in the collation and processing of results because we have only 6 academic staff members in Arts and Social Sciences Education. He told the student that they could give his number to their parents if they wished to talk to them on this issue. However, he said the result processing will be done in batches
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Also, the head of the Department of Arts and Social Science Education, Dr. Mrs B.A. Adesina told the student to exercise patience, and that she couldn’t give a definite answer that they would do this because she is not a politician. However, she advised the students to keep praying that God will help them do everything they do.
Speaking with ACJOAU correspondent in an interview, erstwhile ESAN President, Tesleem Saheed Ayobami, popularly known as TSA stated while he was the president of the faculty, his team tried to take preventive measures to prevent recurrence. Still, it yielded no positive response because the part adviser was not accessible.
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“He only gives excuses about the shortage of staff and so many tasks, and responsibilities for him to handle but the needful/necessities are left undone.”
In conclusion, the affected students pleaded to the school management, Faculty, department, and unit to process their results so they would not miss out on the NYSC mobilization.