WASTED YEARS: OVER 5000 NOUN GRADUANDS TO BE EXCLUDED FROM JANUARY CONVOCATION

No fewer than 5000 students of the National Open University of Nigeria(NOUN) will be excluded from the January 2017 convocation as the institution has slated January 21 and 22 for the occasion without the release of the Nov/Dec 2016 results.

According to an insider who pleaded anonymity, the University is preparing to convocate 2000 students from the June/July 2016 results, leaving out over 5000 students who participated in the Nov/Dec 2016 examinations.

This, it was gathered will amount to the delaying of the graduation of 5000 affected students who will have to wait till 2018 to be convocated.

One of the students who spoke to this medium said, “I don’t know why the University is in a haste to conduct convocation in January 2017, when some students just finished writing their exams December 23, 2016″.

He added that,” There is no hard and fast rule about this convocation, that the former Vice Chancellor, Vincent Tenebe was able to conduct convocation in the month of January throughout his tenure does not mean that Uba Adamu should do the same to the detriment of students who would have to wait for an extra year to be convocated”.

He further explained that, “Tenebe succeeded in conducting the routine convocation in January due to his ability to conduct exams before December of the preceding year, and release all results before convocation”.

“It won’t be a crime if the Vice Chancellor would apply caution and listen to the voice of reason to reschedule the convocation for March so as to accommodate all graduating students in the annual event”.

“It is unfortunate that Uba Adamu, the current Vice Chancellor is conducting convocation at a time when the institution’s portal that has been shut down for over 3 months is yet to be reopened.

“This is in addition to the fact that some students were unable to complete their Tutor Marked Assessments(TMAs) which constitutes 30 percent of students assessment in the previous semester. This is coupled with the fact that most of the examination marking schemes were fed with wrong data during the e-examinations as students failed woefully due to the transfer of the management of the institution’s portal.

“One would have thought that Uba Adamu would settle some of these outstanding issues, rather than convocating just 2000 students in a bid to keep the record of his predecessor to the detriment of students”, he lamented.