CHM 101 – Introductory Chemistry I is a 4-unit course offered by freshmen in physical sciences, biological sciences, agricultural sciences, engineering and technology, pharmacy and health sciences. It is a core course offered by Part 1 students in several departments that are spread across the Faculties of Agriculture, Basic Medical Sciences, Clinical Sciences, Dentistry, Education, Environmental Design and Management, Pharmacy, Science and Technology. The course is offered in the first semester, with assessment measured via an over/40 continuous assessment, and an over/60 final exam.
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The breakdown of the results for the just concluded 2022/2023 Harmattan semester examinations circulated online on Monday 15th of April, and ordinary, a cursory glance at the CHM 101 results is enough to make you look away after a percentage pass rate of 83.55% is commendable with 40/100 as the pass mark. But on deeper introspection, the allure of the pass rate begins to fade, with almost 500 students out of about 3000 students who took the course ill-fated to carry over the course. Even more worsening is the fact that over 400 students had incomplete results, and their fate regarding the course is so far unknown. According to the breakdown, 430 students had A, 522 Bs, 766 Cs, 440 Ds, 383 Es and 499 Fs.
Analysis of the Results based on Faculties; Pass Mark: 40/100
Agriculture: Six departments offered the course with an average pass rate of 57.31%. Only one student in the faculty from the Department of Agricultural Economics had an A, while 143 students had an F, and 92 had incomplete results. Animal science had the highest percentage pass rate with 63.29% while Soil Science and Land Resources Management had the lowest with 48.84%.
Basic Medical Sciences: Three departments offered the course with an average pass rate of 89.63%. 52 Students had an A, while 11 students had an F, and 28 students had incomplete results. Nursing Science had the highest pass rate at 98.77%, and Human Nutrition and Dietetics had the lowest at 71.88%.
Clinical Sciences: The pass rate was remarkably high at 99.19%, with 98 students having an A, and one student having an F. Six students had incomplete results.
Dentistry: The pass rate was absolute at 100%, with 20 students having an A, and no student has an F. Also, no student had an incomplete result.
Education: The pass rate was 63.83%, with only one student having an A. 34 students failed the course, and 12 had incomplete results.
Environmental Design & Management: The building is the only department that offers the course, with a percentage pass of 70.13%. However, no student had an A, 23 students had an F, and 3 students had incomplete results.
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Pharmacy: The pass rate was remarkably high at 99.36%, with 62 students having an A, and only one student failing the course. 11 students had incomplete results.
Science: Eight departments offered the course with an average pass rate of 80.47%. 73 Students had an A, while 185 students had an F, and 153 students had incomplete results. Microbiology had the highest pass rate at 90.10%, and Zoology had the lowest at 70.87%.
Technology: 9 departments offered the course with an average pass rate of 85.25%. 123 Students had an A, while 101 students had an F, and 106 students had incomplete results. Aerospace Engineering had the highest pass rate at 100%, and Agricultural & Environmental Engineering had the lowest at 65.38%. The only department in the Faculty without a single A is Food Science and Technology.
It should be noted that failure in a course for students crossing to part 2 in the Faculties of Basic Medical Sciences, Clinical Sciences and Dentistry of the College of Health Sciences and Faculty of Pharmacy, automatically means repeating the year.
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499 Fs Despite Harmattan Semester Extension, Fate Undecided Yet For Another Over 400
Just after the 2023 Christmas and New Year Break, the University amended the academic calendar for the session which led to the extension of the Harmattan semester. According to the statement from the amended calendar, ‘This amendment is informed by the need to accommodate the earlier Deferment of Lectures by 3 weeks for the Batch B enrolment (100 and 200 Levels). Unexpectedly, the higher-level classes also encountered a few setbacks. Consequently, it thus appeared that a three-week extension of lecture periods for the semester would be necessary’.
The Batch A-Batch B mode of admission is a result of the merging of two admission sets; the 2022 admission and the 2023 admission. Despite the amendment of the calendar to cater for more classes for the students most especially the freshmen, 499 students still had FS with over 400 students yet to know their fate.
5.0 Dreams of Many Freshmen Shattered
Many freshmen, beginning their academic journey, resume school in hopes of having excellent grades, and graduating from university with a good CGPA, however what about when that dream begins shattering early from part one? Evident from the breakdown of results, only 430 students can keep pedalling on that dream, provided that their victory here has not made them victims of other courses. This is because, for a course offered in the famous White House Building, the difficulty in scaling through it has been rumoured far and wide, and while students might dedicate extra efforts into passing it, the solo dedication might have found them wanting in other areas.
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Promotional Dilemma for Some COHS and Pharmacy Students
For students in the College of Health Sciences and Faculty of Pharmacy passing the course, alongside all of their other core courses, is a prerequisite for their promotion into part 2, however for others, where the shoe pinches are different.
Damilola Surprise, Class Rep of Part One Pharmacy Class, speaking with the ACJOAU Correspondent, explained that ‘regarding the incomplete results, immediately after the exam few of my coursemates complained about not shading the paper type while some did not share their matric number well, I presume that is the reason for the incomplete results. We recorded 1F and to be honest, we are not pleased with it. It was due to some health issues the person faced during that period’.
He further explained that although they have reached out to the course coordinator, they have yet to get an actionable response.
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‘We tried to reach out to the coordinator but she was not around, we were redirected to another person and we hope all issues are rectified. They were asked to drop names and matric numbers, hopefully, we got a positive response this week’, he said.
Also, Adebisi Taiwo Adeyinka, Class Representative of Nursing Part 1, speaking on behalf of the class, commented that the overall performance in Nursing, and the whole College of Health Sciences was good despite the difficulty the course posed. He also hinted that the 1F could be explained by a switch of results which might have occurred after the marking process.
‘In a class of 90+ and having an individual that failed CHM 101 is sad. I have been able to get across to the person that failed the course and even tried helping but what I was told is that the script was marked with a computer so there is no way an error has been made. It saddens me in particular because in the Nursing department if you fail a major course in part 1, you will repeat the year, the individual believes that the result given to the individual was not the individual’s own and the individual has been trying to rectify it and I pray it works. Students passed despite them saying the Course was so hard and indeed, it was hard but we thank God, that the result we had was great even in the whole College of Health Sciences. I pray we continue to excel as usual’.
In the same view, ACJOAU Correspondent reached out to the President of the Nigerian Association of Agricultural Students (NAAS) opinion on the result, especially in regards to the performance of the students in the Faculty of Agriculture and what the association is doing at the moment to help the students particularly those with incomplete results who are yet to know their fate. However, efforts to get a response from him proved abortive.
DEPARTMENT REACTS
A visit to the office of the coordinator of the course, Professor Olabanji, by the ACJOAU Correspondent to enquire about the situation regarding those with incomplete results was unfruitful as she was not around. However, according to the instructions posted at the door of her office and the individual whom the correspondent met in her office who confirmed her unavailability, affected students with no examination result or that continuous assessment is to lodge their complaints in Room G36. It was also stated that there would be no re-grading of examination marks or scores as it is devoid of human error. It remains to see whether or not, and how soon these issues will be rectified.
