On Wednesday, 29th of May, students’ information groups on WhatsApp were flooded with a proposal for the extension of the rain semester lecture period. Included in the proposal as an implication of the extension is a four-month holiday to follow the ending of the current session. Speaking with the ACJOAU correspondent, students on campus are however berating the proposal, labelling it unfair and inconsiderate, and are asking for a reduction when the proposal comes up for deliberation in the senate.
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The rain semester commenced on March 18 and was scheduled to end on June 7, spanning 12 weeks. However, issues ranging from the industrial action of the non-academic teaching staff and the extended Eid-el-Fitr holiday disrupted the schedule, making it impossible for lecturers to finish teaching their coursework.
Consequently, the Committee of Deans, according to the proposal circulating online, are asking for a two-week lecture period extension from June 7 to June 21. Due to this extension, the rain semester examinations will be shifted to July 1 and end on July 20. Initially, the holiday period scheduled to begin on July 8 and end on August 1, about a month plus, has now been shifted to begin on July 22 and end on November 15, about four months plus.
According to the proposal, the prolonged holiday period is supposed to cater for occasional SWEP/SIWES and TP programs, the sitting of the departmental and faculty board of examiners, the senate meeting (both statutory and supplementary), and an included one-month rest period for members of staff. This has however sparked widespread outrage amongst students, with many expressing their displeasure both online and onsite.
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Speaking with ACJOAU, Joshua expressed his frustration on how much time he has wasted since resuming as a freshman. ‘I have been on this campus since 2021, and by that permutation, I am supposed to be graduating this year, but then I am still in part two, second semester’. He said, ‘I don’t understand what we will be using a four-month break for, it’s just time-wasting and inconsiderate of them’. He added, ‘Hoping for its cancellation at the senate, they should just think about it because that length of time is unnecessary’. ‘They are wasting people’s lives for God’s sake’, he concluded.
Ikechukwu Joy, a freshman, also expressed her concern, explaining that with nothing to engage herself with during that period, the holiday is a bit too long. ‘Why will they give us a four-month holiday? I mean, a semester is four months, and they gave us four months’ holiday as a break’, she remarked. ‘For me, it’s a bit too much; what am I supposed to be doing in those four months?’ she asked.
Fatihah Jimoh, a final-year student, expressed her concern that the extension might affect the processing of her results and delay her graduation. Narrating her displeasure, she said, ‘I am not happy with it because this is our final year, and I feel like it is going to affect our results’. She further narrated that a similar thing happened last year, causing OAU to now lag behind UI. ‘Okay, let’s say we can be happy that we are graduating and are not concerned, but this same thing happened last year too. After we observed our normal holiday, they added four months, which is a lot. I remember last year, we were ahead of UI, but now their students have already graduated and have seen their results. That’s very bad, and I think OAU should do better on that because it’s a whole lot’, she said.
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Akinbo Joseph, a third-year student, described the proposal as unfair to students. Speaking on the matter, he said, ‘I entered this campus in 2019, and now we are in 2024. This is like five years plus doing a four-year course. It is bad for me. Staying at home for four months without doing anything beneficial, without having skills, then what is the essence of being in this school in the first place? Some universities like UI are even faster than OAU right now, and that’s so unfair on us’. Hoping that it will be corrected, he further said, ‘I don’t know if there is a council that can talk to them to help us reduce the duration for the break because most students will have lost interest in school during that period’.
At the time of writing this report, it has not been verified that the proposal is authentic, nor is the extension a finality. However, students are concerned that the break is unnecessarily long, and are urging the university management to review the proposal to find a more suitable solution that caters to the needs of both staff and students.