By Ogunnaike Samuel
Sir: The university among other things is the power base of intellect. It tends to be immeasurably respected that graduates from other tertiary institutions such as colleges and polytechnics would remain unsatisfied and literarily unfulfilled without having a bite of the wholesome contents that it promises.
This super and superb position of the university is reinforced in the eligibility criteria of the admission seekers. The score base of the university seems more competitive, demanding, and a little incredible compared to the others.
Apart from this, it is the palace of renowned dons – a reserved home for distinguished readers and professors.
If the university teachers are unquestionably perfect in their business, then, why the gross failure? Anytime there’s a colossal amount of failure in the terminal examination for the final class in the secondary schools, fingers are quickly pointed in the direction of teachers.
Unarguably, a lot of uncalled teachers have gate-crashed into the teaching profession as a temporary rescue from the world of unending joblessness.
Like teachers in the pre-tertiary institutions, are lecturers also half-baked? Are university teachers incapable of imparting knowledge since, education works like GIGO- Garbage in, garbage out? With their humongous and frightening certifications, are they just competent but not good, or not very good?.
According to the performance theory, there is a linear relationship between input and output, thus, if the input (the university teacher) is deficient, the output (the student) will be defective.
Read Also: Kano commits huge resources in running state-owned varsities, says Ganduje
By extension, output is a function of input. If the output (students’ performance) is low, then the input (the student’s effort) is demeaning.
This brings us to the recent results of the faculty of pharmacy, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), which were marred with unprecedented mass failure.
While the cause of this worrisome phenomenon may not be correctly established, it stands humorous, that the Ivy League, the home of proven academics is going through a nagging experience of some ridiculous realities.
To be fair to Obafemi Awolowo University, the bleating experience of gross failure at the tertiary level seems not to be characteristic of any particular university. In March, 2019, a large group of students of Delhi University protested and held a press conference to raise the issue of mass failure of students in various departments of M.A. and M.Sc. According to the Champion, a newspaper, in the Mathematics department, 35 students out of 39 failed.
The rate of mass failure is as high as 90% in some departments at Delhi University.
In summary, with mass failure in the university, the resonant question is this- who is in? And who is out?
- Ogunnaike Samuel, Lagos.
Leave a Reply