An unusual development left the University of Ado-Ekiti (UNAD) without peace for the better part of yesterday.

A Department of Education lecturer, Dr Michael Omirin, who fixed a pre-examination test in a 300 level course for 7a.m., set the stage for trouble by stopping the exam when most students were still busy writing.

In a bid to escape the hammer that had befallen nearly 1,500 students repeating the course, CUS 301, many students surged forward to submit their papers. There was stampede.

About 4,000 students were in the hall. Twelve of them, including an expectant woman, were injured.

Three of the wounded students, comprising 10 women and two men, are at the Emergency Unit of the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in the Ekiti State capital. The expectant student was moved to the maternity section of the hospital.

The UTH Chief Medical Director, Dr Patrick Adegun, said the student may have to be induced to deliver the baby or a cesarian section is done to save her life and that of the baby.

Adegun, who received the Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Dada Adelowo and his entourage – they rushed to the hospital to see how the students were faring – said all the students had high chances of survival.

Omirin said the students got injured while trying to submit the test scripts to their course representatives, adding that the lecture room was spacious enough for them.

Shodipe Mojisola, a 400 level Computer Science Education student who was receiving attention at the hospital, had a contrary view. The hall, she said, was too small for the students.

Mojisola said: “It is a carryover course for me. I am already in 400 level. So, I sat in front of the class. When the lecturer announced stoppage time, I was still tidying up when some of the students who had finished rushed over me. That was the last I knew, until God revived me at the hospital.”

Olawumi Iyabo (300 level Accounting Education) said Omirin was fond of creating panic about the course.

Some other students, who pleaded not to be named, said the “unfriendly disposition” of the lecturer to the students with regard to the course was responsible for the stampede.

One said: “Every year, many students fail the course; so, we have over 4000 students in the hall that has the capacity to contain just 2000.

“So, as we were rushing forward to submit, some of these students rolled over one another and fainted. The students had to rush because it has always been the stance of the lecturer that once he refuses to accept your test, you have already failed the course.”

Shittu Quadri Olalekan (president, Student Union Government, UNAD), Adeeko Emanuel Ayodeji (PRO) and Comrade Ayiti Adebayo Gabriel (National President, Federation of Ekiti State Students Union) corroborated the observations of the two victims.

Adeeko noted that it was unfair for the authorities to allow over 4,000 students to be packed into a 1,500-capacity lecture room, adding that it was a situation the students had borne for many years.

They urged the school authorities to cancel the test and give every candidate automatic pass as restitution for the treatment they received.

The Vice Chancellor promised that the university would foot the medical bills of the injured students.


http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/news/10272-12-unad-students-hospitalised-after-exam-hall-stampede.html

That is the level of decadance in oureducational system

The Vice Chancellor promised that the university would foot the medical bills of the injured students.

So the VC wont sanction the stupid lecturer, he should be dismissed for setting a testing at 7.00 and not conducting the test properly