By: Emelife Uc,200level MELL
The terror that accompanies examination can only be lessened by the outcome of the struggle. A delay in the release of the outcome is taking out the heart of a student and letting it beat outside its region while it's just there hanging by a tissue, dangling left, right, left again, right, unsettled each step taken -you're not dead, but you don't feel alive either. The unrest that follows the outgrowing patience, the unanswered questions and doubts "Did I pass? Did I fail? Maybe I got no 3 wrong", the anxiety involved in seeing a mate's call, the killing of self-confidence, and the ambivalent view of relaxation. Unfortunately, this is currently the aura of every Danfodite, that my unsobered pen has decided to puke.
The 2017/2018 session drew to a close on the 18th of August, 2018, and the exams for the second semester of the session came to an end too. If the grievances of my pen were directed towards the results of the just concluded semester exams, I would say to it, "Hey dear little pointy buddy, lay off, it's not even being a month. Be patient" but no, it is towards the 1st semester exams that got concluded about five months ago. Five whole months. What exactly is the delay for?
Weeks ago, it was the Eid El Kabir celebration and I can bet you that not many of the Muslim Danfodites could chew the meats properly because each time a plate is offered, the recurring image that replaces the meats is the result spreadsheet displaying very scanty grades that aren't enough to determine their fate.
A cross section interview with some students features Yusuf's - (A 100l student of MELL) lament over how the delay affected his Sallah,
"How could I enjoy when I don't even know my stance yet in UDUS? Parents kept wondering why I had a long face. I was pretty tensed with the whole 'No result yet', and this one course I had a problem with in the first semester made it even worse as the curiosity grew everyday to know what's up"
With that thought constantly bugging, I doubt if relaxation can come in.
Just a week ago, the 2018 NNPC/SNEPCo National University Scholarship, made its call for registration and placed a deadline on the 24th of September, 2018. One of the requirements for its registration is a 3.0 and above CGPA. A lot of 100l students while still aspirants, literally dreamed of being scholars of this board at their 200l to lessen the burden of sessional tution fees placed on their Parents, in the words of one who is bittered by this realization and has requested to be tagged anonymous, "My Sister before her graduation, was a scholar for three years. She got it in her first year. It was my dream, hers' and my Parents' that I get it too the same year she did" but as at now, the dreams are not just deferred but obliterated as a result of the impossibility of having a CGPA before the 24th of September. These set of students have no other choice, but wait, till the next session. A whole year of being a scholar gone just like that.
My pen is more disturbed by the realization that most lecturers are done marking the scripts. In the previous semester, lecturers who for the sake of respecting privacy would be tagged incognito, made comments like, "Have you seen your results?" "I noticed that all of you misunderstood what I asked in No 3" and other seemingly related questions, prove that they are indeed done marking but somehow, the results cannot be accessed.
After my pen took to the field to make a survey of the number of released results in some departments of all levels, it discovered that after the controversy that ensued following the poor results of the GST exams of the 1st semester, just few departments commenced with releasing more results as at the time this was written.
Take MELL for example, Max a 100l going to 200l student of Literature in English informed that just six of his first semesters results are out: ENG 113, LIT 103, FRE 102b, ENG 111, GST 101 and GST 104 in that order-none after the GSTs were out.
A 100l going to 200l student of Education Chemistry informed that just six of her first semester results are out: CHM 101, EDU101, EDU102, SED101, GST101 and GST104.
Gabriel, a 200l going to 300l student of Zoology informed that just three of his first semester results are out: GST 212, GST 213 and BOT 202.
Vera, a 300l going to 400l student of Agriculture informed that just a single result of her first semester is out: GST 311.
Patience, a 100l going to 200l student of Medicine informed that just three of her results are out: The two GSTs and CHM 101.
Abdul, a 300l going to 400l of English Language, lamented that just a single result of his first semester is out and it is a GST.
In the department of microbiology, my pen discovered that aside the GSTs, no departmental result has been released for all the levels.
Sam, a 400l going to 500l student of Medical Laboratory lamented that just a single result has been released: MLS 405. He further adds that the students need to know of the casualties and the eligibility to take a resit. In his words, "It is a bulky course comprising of 5 individual courses. And in the set up of the school, results need to be released on time to enable students prepare for a resit should there be any casualty".
And many more testimonies out there. This has resulted in making most of these students coupled with the outgrowing patience and curiosity, include a direct link to the result checker, to the features of their homescreen.
The 2018/2019 session is slated to kickoff on the 2nd of October and registration of courses would commence as soon as the payment of school fees sparks off, how can a student in so much confidence, register for fresh courses when he is unaware of the grades of the previous ones? And when such student decides to wait till the eleventh hour to register so as to be on a safer side, he meets a long queue at the Minimart or the school's ICT Centre and catches a circular that reads, "All Students are mandated to register their courses before (Insert a date that is a week to examination)". He or she is left confused, stranded and is eventually found a victim of the ultimatum. Then everyone blames him or her, forgetting that the piper who detects the tune began the melody at a latter hour.
We understand that the management is trying all it can to make sure cases of missing results, wrong grades, to mention but a few, are curbed. I mean the management marked its first CBT Exam for that purpose, which probably explains the delay, but it is taking forever and we are humans, our minds are not at rest. And the only way it can be, is if these results are released and made accessible.
DISCLAIMER: This article does not in anyway, aim at discoloring the image of this prestigious University, nor question the result upload method of the University. It simply wishes to plead with the management to do something about the recurring delay in the release of examination results, so we students can see early where is loose and thereafter, tighten.
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