Adeyemi Oluwatosin, a student of the Olabisi Onabanjo
University (OOU) in Ogun, has lamented his ordeal with the authorities of the
school after his graduation was delayed over a “draconic policy” that forbade
waving of courses.
In a series of posts made on his Facebook account, the 400
level student recounted how his academic journey, which had been “going
smoothly,” experienced a sudden shakeup during his fourth year, when he learned
he had failed a one-unit course which he couldn’t wave after the policy came
up.
“I failed a course codenamed CRP 404 (Agricultural meteorology).
It came as a surprise to me, considering my record of keeping a clean sheet.
Things got complicated when the management made a draconic policy of ‘no waving
of course’, even if it’s a one-unit course,” Adeyemi said.
“Based on this policy, I wrote letters on the 7th of
November, 2018 to the school management to apply for pro-rata payment of school
fees and request to register for the CRP 404 outstanding course, as the new
school protocol implied. These were approved on March 19 and 21 respectively.”
Oluwatosin said he was made to pay the sum of N54,078 stated
on his student portal as a part of the tuition for students with an added year
but would later discover — when he was to register for the course three days
after — that N7,686.00 had been added to his bill, which came as a shock to
him.
“As I attempted to pay the additional school fees, I
realized the portal for the payment of school fees had been closed. Even after
the second payment, the money didn’t still reflect on my portal till the day I
retook the exam for the course. I discovered that the fees reflected after my
examination,” he said.
“I was expecting my result when other students started
seeing theirs and this was giving me a lot of concern. I then made a verbal
complaint to my HOD, with whom we went to go and see the ICT director. The ICT
director then said what shook me; he said I didn’t enroll for the session.
“I staged a lone protest to draw the attention of the
management to my plight. In the light of this, I was advised to apply for late
enrolment which I did on the 16th of October, 2019, but it wasn’t approved. I
was told to retake the course at the next available opportunity, even when I
passed it.
“This dejected me, I was physically and psychologically down
and depressed. I was faced with psychological trauma, not because I was advised
to retake the course but because of the thought of what I passed through during
the registration process. It’s better imagined than experienced.
“The thought of this made me cry because I had been
transiting between Ago-Iwoye (main campus) and Ayetoro (Agric. Sci. campus)
throughout the session just to make sure the issue was rectified. If I was not
at Ayetoro to attend the class, I would be at Ago-Iwoye to monitor the issue’s
progress.
“During this period, I fell sick more than four times,
because of the physical and mental stress I was subjected to, as a result of
the dysfunctional system. The thought of committing suicide was not far from my
mind, if not because of the people that God used for me.”
Having yielded to the advice that he retakes the course a
second time on the premise that his 2018/2019
tuition would be rolled over for the 2019/2020 session, Adeyemi claimed
the school management hasn’t been forthcoming with regard to providing him a
document to back this.
“I had, once again, accepted to retake the course because of
their promise of using the 2018/2019 session school fees for the 2019/2020
session. I wrote a letter requesting to be provided a written document to back
it up and also to effect the change on my portal,” the aggrieved student said.
“But it is unfortunate that, since I have written the letter
on the 19th of November, 2019, nothing has been done about it. I’m back to square
one. The situation is not in any way different from that of the last session.
Right now, my future is at risk. My life is being jeopardized because of this.”
“If this is delayed further, I’m afraid my hope of
mobilization for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) may be at risk due to
me being 29. All my colleagues are done with service and here I am, with a 2
unit course still battling my future. Right now, I don’t know if there is any
hope for me.
“Due to this dysfunctional system, I lost lots of opportunities
such as getting a job. The school made a stringent policy against any
negligence on the part of the students and the student actually suffered for it
but who would suffer for faulty system of the school? It’s still the students!
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