•UNILAG medical students reject course change
Academic and other activities were grounded at Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), Lagos, yesterday following students’protest over the death of a final year student, Comfort Olubukola Dazan.
Dazan, who had sickle cell anaemia, reportedly died, following a crisis.
Her colleagues claimed that Dazan, who was studying Office Technology Management, might not have died if she had not been rejected at the medical centre where she was rushed when she collapsed at midnight. They also faulted the institution for not helping to raise the N35, 000 deposit demanded by the hospital she was taken to from the clinic.
They said they paid for medicals but do not get value for their money. They said the late Dazan’s father has stroke; the mother has a bad leg.
They regretted that the late Dazan, who was the best student in her class with a Cumulative Grade Point Average of 4.93 died on the day she was to start her practical examination.
One student, who refused to give his name, told The Nation that the medical centre treated Dazan shabbily even in death.
He said: “The school clinic did not take the body to the mortuary immediately. They put the body in the ambulance and then back to the clinic and did not even clean the body up as it was stained with vomit and excreta; so students got angry and started protesting. Two other students even fainted today (yesterday)”.
The students presented a 10-point demand to the Rector, Dr Margaret Ladipo and took her round the school to show her bad structures. ýAt the rector’s premises, they saw two parked ambulances and asked what they were doing there.
The rector appealed for calm, but when some security agents shot into the air, the students got angry and burnt down the clinic.
The students also blocked the college’s gates, causing traffic gridlock in its environs, especially on Herbert Macaulay Road, where they burnt tyres.
They asked for two-week mourning for the late Dazan and postponement of examinations, lectures and practical.
Their other demands included: visit and payment of compensation to the bereaved family; autopsy by forensic experts on cause of death; re-instatement of the student union; fumigation of hostels, classrooms and laboratory facilities each session; rehabilitation of toilet and hostel facilities, among others.
In a statement, the school’s Public Relations Officer, Mr Charles Oni, refuted claims that the late Dazan was neglected.
He said she had been under the clinic’s care days before her death, adding that she was discharged to allow her prepare for her practical examinations, which started yesterday.
Oni said: “She had developed a crisis in the afternoon of Tuesday, February 9, 2016 and was temporarily on admission at the College Medical Centre under close watch of the Centre’s Management. She was however discharged when her condition became stable so that she could prepare for her examination today, Wednesday, February 10, 2016. Practical examinations began round the College last Monday as a precursor to the main general examination scheduled for Monday, February 15.
“The late Dazan’s crisis relapsed around midnight and her room mates rushed her back to the medical centre where precautionary medical attention was given to her, with a promise to refer her to Federal Medical Centre at Ebute Meta as soon as day break.”Oni claimed the students cashed in her death to pressure the institution to postpone the examination which begins “fully” next week.
“ýStudents immediately cashed in on the death of the late Dazan to engage in opportunistic clamour for the extension of the semester. They demanded for the extension of the semester for two weeks contrary to the College calendar.
Unfortunately, many students do not prepare for examination until such examinations are a week or three days away, and customarily, they always plead for extension until the Management put a stop to such opportunism about two years ago. The hydra-headed clamour sprang up again Wednesday because of the death of Miss Dazan. “
A lecturer, who is a member of the college’s academic board, said the board was meeting at the time of the protest, adding that the students restricted movement within and out ofý the college.
”We were meeting during the protest. The students did not allow us to go in or come out. They wanted the board to shift the examination immediately,” he said.
Dazan’s remains were buried at Atan Cemetery, Yaba, yesterday.
Meanwhile, there was tension at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) yesterday when medicine students protested against what they called “forceful change of our courses”.
The students and their parents disrupted activities at the university from 2pm till late, yesterday to get the university to address the issue.
For over one week, the students have been gathering at the university for resolution of the matter.
Things came to a head yesterday when the students and their parents besieged the Senate Building, following the re-distribution of students to departments in the faculties of science, social sciences, and education.
The students, called cross-over students, comprised those admitted through the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), the university’s Foundation Programme, and Direct Entry. After spending one sessiono in the Akoka Campus, the students were to continue their studies at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos (CMUL) at Idi-Araba, subject to meeting the requirements.
The students alleged that three weeks to the end of their second semester, the requirements were changed.
A student simply called Anthony said the sub dean of the Science Faculty, Dr Ade Ademilua, told them of the possibility of changes in the cut off marks.
He said: “When we resumed 100-Level, they sold a prospectus to us showing all our cut off marks. For my department, they said with a minimum average score of 50 percent in my three core, physical, chemical and biological sciences, we could proceed to 200-Level. Then just three weeks before exam last semester, the sub dean, Dr Ade Ademilua told us that they may change the Cumulative Grade Pont Average (CGPA). There was no official notice or written notice to the effect. Then the list of those who made it into 200-Level was supposed to be released in January as was done for sets before ours but they delayed ours until February and changed so many people’s departments.”
He said he found his name in the list for pharmacology department, rather than his choice of surgery, with his 3.75 CGPA and appealed to the school to allow him proceed to the medical school.
Another protester, Tolani, said she was supposed to qualify for the promotion because she had a CGPA that was much higher than the one stated for her department in the prospectus.
“What they gave for my department was 2.5 cgpa but now, they have suddenly raised it to about 4.0. And they did not allow us proceed. That’s unfair! I think it is because the National Universities Commission (NUC ) gave them a directive that they are making us suffer for it. We will protest until they give us what we deserve.”
A student, who did not want her name in print, faulted the delay in announcing changes in the criterion.
She said: “All of us admitted for medical courses were not told of the new assessment method. We were told after admission that we only needed to score 50 per cent in all the courses in the first year. Many of us scored beyond the average mark, but the school secretly introduced a new criterion. If they had told us in the first semester that our CGPA would be used, many of us would have studied hard.”
In an interview with The Nation, the Vice Chancellor, Prof Rahamon Bello, said the university had been mandated by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) to index all its medical students or lose accreditation. Consequently, he said the college could only admit 130 as against 150.
“For a while, the college had not been indexing the students admitted for medicine. However, now the MDCN, which regulates the programme, is insisting on it. We can now only admit 130. Last year, students admitted from the Foundation programme got into the college with 13 points. But this year, we could only take those with 16 points,” he said.
He assured the students that they would be absorbed by other departments where there is space.
A statement from the university’s information unit directed the students to register their new courses on the university portal.
The statement reads: “The health professions courses at the College of Medicine are regulated by their professional bodies, and these bodies regulate the numbers to be trained, to ensure the quality of the health workforce, based on the availability of facilities and resources. They all, therefore, have quotas that are applied at the 200 level.
“These quotas are now being enforced by the assignment of student index numbers when they cross over into the professional programmes in the College of Medicine.”
