OPEN LETTER TO UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN
Greetings to the Honorable Vice chancellor Professor Abdulganiyu Ambali, members of the senate and
all who will take their time to read this little piece of ours which is coming straight from our hearts; we
The Unilorin Association of Distress Student (UADS).
It may now seem that the students of Unilorin are so unserious, daft and unintelligent, as our acclaimed better by far university is now bent on making sure that no student comes out or graduates with good grades, or should I say some faculties. Even terrible is the case of the current finalist from the faculty of Education.
The sudden birth of German computer based test, which was introduced by the Faculty ‘demi-god’ Dr. Mrs. Yusuf as a way of testing our intelligence; since our grades are too good and needs slashing because she thinks the students, especially in faculty of Education are getting so much good grades in exams and they don’t deserve it or maybe because too many education finalist will go to serve and it will not do the faculty any good. At least a thousand spill-over students will do ‘good’ for the faculty’s purse and maybe the school at large. Sorry to say, but we think this is preposterous!
Which is more likely? That all the students in the faculty of Education, especially the finalist are all unserious and daft or that just a particular privileged person(s) is just being wicked or unreasonable.
Since the inception/introduction of German test/exam, the faculty of Education has recorded more failure this session than any other exam session. Researched.
We are not saying that it is bad to introduce new ways of testing students, but you will have to prepare them first.
No orientation was given on this alien exam pattern, especially to the finalist. Most student are not computer literates (most student don’t know how to type). Researched.
Truth is, not everyone will pass in an examination, but when both the serious and unserious, intelligent and unintelligent fail together, then something is wrong.
The timing is wrong especially for finalist.
We are not trying to shatter the name of the school, our faculty (Education) or anyone at all, but to express our distress and hope it is put into consideration. Scared of being expelled after four years of hard work is why we are appealing to anyone in authority to help us look into the matter.

German test/exam have already programmed answers which even if your answer is correct but does not tally with the already programmed one, is an automatic fail. German test does not recognize the use of synonyms E.g. Using ‘True’ instead of ‘Yes’. English itself is complex that we can have more than a word for a particular term.
Once there is an omission in an answer, either typographically or due to normal exam pressure, one automatically fails by just missing a letter even though he/she does know the answer. This is not fair on the students as one can never be too careful with spellings and omissions which are most times not deliberate.
Time also is a factor. This exam doesn’t come with options or clues like in other exams (e.g. who wants to be a millionaire) and so will need one to be able to comprehend the question first so as to answer it properly as sometimes, the questions are so complex that one will need at least reasonable seconds to be able to decipher them but, Time STARES warningly into one’s soul.
Some answers are supposed to be entered in block letters while some are not, some answers need punctuations while others don’t, but because not every student is computer literate, they fail not because they don’t know the answers or didn’t read or prepare well for the exam, but because they only sat for Digital Literacy Course (DLC) exam, but never had a day class for it!
Truth is, the school or faculty has not really prepared or equipped the students well enough for this German exam. Written exam and/or the objective type is still the best for now, at least until all the different types of students are put to consideration, as many are at a disadvantage due to individual qualms. This is one of the things we are taught as Educationists [individual differences]. Not every student has the ability to understand a question at a first glance. We are all different in nature and intelligence quotient.
So with this little but important points of ours, we the Unilorin Association of Distressed Students seek to SOLICIT and APPEAL to the faculty of Education, the school board of directors, members of the senate, our honorable vice chancellor Prof. Abdulganiyu Ambali [OON], government and any able hands, on behalf of every student affected, that you should please look into this matter as it affects us very much and you should please endeavor to bring back the normal COMPUTER BASED TEST (CBT).
We the Association of Distressed Students say ‘NO’ to German test/exam. We are not ‘Germans’ and do not in any way want to be like them. We are comfortable with who we are, our normal computer based test and more concerned with our CGPA[s].
Please understand that we are not trying to poke fun at anyone neither are we in any way trying to be racist.
God bless Unilorin and all the students therein. Wishing you all success in our forth coming examination and a beautiful Ramadan with loads of blessings.
From concerned Unilorin Students,
U.A.D.S.

This is serious. Mods should do the needful. God bless my alma mata.

cc lalasticlala