There are growing outcry from some students of the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) over an ultimatum set by the School management on payment of school fees and course registrations. A student, who claimed to be representing the voice of some indigent students had written an open letter to the Vice Chancellor to complain how the student community see the changes in his regime. If you missed his letter, please read it here.
In reaction to the above, the Director of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) Center, in the Federal University of Technology Owerri, Dr. A. C Onyeka, in reaction (on a personal level) have left the students with some words of advise on how to avoid falling victims of fee and course registration deadlines in the future. Have a good read below.
I must confess that this writeup is quite impressive on the surface, but after taking a closer look, I see something not too far from a celebration of mediocrity.First the three day lecture free period isn’t only about payment of school fees. It includes completion of course registration. Ten (10) weeks after resumption, and we’re still talking about students paying fees and registering their courses. Nigerian students really need to sit up.I can’t pretend to be blind or clueless with respect to the presence and plight of some indigent students on our campuses but we ought to learn to separate shadows from substance. The offline course registration “costs” only N300 for the revalidation cd. Over the weeks we had recorded an average of about 120 registrations per day but yesterday, Monday, March 23, 2015 we had 1,200 students completing their offline registrations. Last semester when we insisted on no fees no exams, over 450 students paid fees on the first 3 days of the exams, namely September 22-24, 2014 enabling the university to recover over 15 million naira that would have gone down the drain just like that….Elsewhere in the world, students make full payment of fees before coming to the faculty. They know and register for all the courses they would be offering in the semester right from day one. And all these help to prepare and produce students’ results as at when due. And now we’re trying to right some of the wrongs in our system, someone is trying to paint the university management as being in – sensitive. What a shame!Let me plead with and beg our students to learn to do the right things at the right time. The first thing you ought to do at the beginning of every session or semester is to pay your fees and register your courses for the semester. This is called wisdom. To wait to be forced to do so is lack of wisdom.If a student is indigent, it is not the VC that should know first but your class adviser and hod. How many of you know their class advisers and hods let alone discussing such issues with them? Does it also “cost” or require money to do so? And how many class advisers and hods are also available and possess friendly and right disposition to attend to the legitimate needs of the students?What the VC and the university management is pursuing is what the VC calls “quest for excellence”. Let’s all join hands together to do the right things at the right time! Last session, we said “no fees, no exams” and some students waited to become unnecessary victims. This session we have gone a step further to say “no course registration, no exams” Will you also wait to become another unnecessary victim?
Written by Dr. A. C Onyeka,
Director, ICT Center, FUTO.
Director, ICT Center, FUTO.
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