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State Universities And The Tradition of Producing Higher Number of Lower Class Degrees

Over the years, Nigerian universities were nutorious for chunking out extremely low number of higher classes of degree into the labour market, if at all, they were willing to produce any. the trend lasted for too long that it became a norm and a thing of pride among schools. Faculties were thrilled to produce the lowest number of first class degrees while the department that produces none take the day. The advent of private universities has however created the perfect scenery for a turn around in the public sphere. For whatever it could be, i'm convinced the administrators of public owned varsities thought it was poor of first rated universities in the country to present preponderant figures of third rated graduates while third rated schools, littered around the nooks and crannies of the country, saturate the society with half baked, ill-equipped young men and women who wouldn't knot their own sneakers without guidiance as first rated graduates. To that effect, the wind of change blew and sanity was to return to the system.

Sadly, state owned universities have gallantly failed to be part of this reform. Glaring as each year passes, it becomes evident that the system and its administrators don't find any fault in the archaic tradition of operation. The present Vice Chancellor of Lagos State University, Prof Fagbohun while address newsmen was quoted as saying "first class is not cheap in LASU, the university awards it to only students who meet the requirement". His school had just recently produced 26 number of first class graduants out of 21,637, implying just 0.0012% of the entire number of graduates produced. Also, just 1,084 of them implying 0.05% finished with a second class upper division. While it's saddening that the vice chancellor had to justify the system for producing large alumni with such poor classes of grade, the bigger picture is that the academic system is seriously weak and needs immediate reinforcement, lest it collapses entirely. With such disastrous statistics available, it is safe to conclude that Lagos State university is simply the worse hit school in present day NIgeria.

Not far from this trend is Olabisi Onabanjo University, one of the best state universities, you may choose to say but definitely as archiac as its contemporaries. At the recently concluded convocation ceremony, the school convoked 15 first class graduates and 531 second class upper division out of 5,137. while this may seem fairer than LASU's it is certainly poor compared to University of Lagos' 245 first class degrees of 6,822 graduates at her last convocation and Ibadan's 186 of 5,629 at her convocation in 2017. DELSU is not left out of the show of shame as it produced 24 first class graduates of 5, 811 in 2016.Other state schools are not left behind too.

The reasons for this mass production of not-too-suitable set of graduates may not be far-fetched. It is an open scret that state owned universities are culpable of admitting larger number of candidates beyond the qouta allotted to many of them by NUC.This apparently isn't unconnected to poor funding of these schools. This means with higher number of students and increased tuition, there could be hope of running a hitch free university calender. The adverse multiplier effects are obvious, amongst others include overcrowded classrooms which leads to pressure on the available facilities, poor learning environment and eventually poor permance by the students.

Olabisi Onabanjo University as a case study is a school in which a large number of students, ranging over 2,000 would have to take their examinations in turn at an ICT centre where there are fewer numbers of practically functioning computer systems. These systems intermittently malfunction due to pressure and possibly lack of maintenance. That unfortunate student may have to pay dearly with his grades if he finds out the computer system has ended the test even before it started. How then are these students expected to perform when the environment does not allow for such?

The system of state owned schools is entirely a huge disaster at the admission desk. Overqualified candidates are required to take the test over and again as each year passes while unqualified candidated are handpicked into the system. Most state owned universites don't bother taking unqualified candidates through the back door, instead, such candidates are allowed triumphant entry through the main entrance with pride, walking over tones of far qualifed persons to steal the right spot. .At the end, this iterative disaster and several attempts to justify it is all the public gets and the cycle continues.

While the situation may seem hopeless for state owned varsities, it is not entirely over to make amends. It is patinent to state that the solution to this menace lies in the hand of the authorities. First, I believe NUC should place working and immediate stringent sanctions on universities that admit a single student above its allotted quota for each department. This sanctions should include withdrawal of accreditation from a wanting department until the issue is rightly resolved. This would reassure Nigerians that NUC's isn't all about ceremonial visits to school in exchange for brown envelopes as many people may think today. Second, the authorities of state owned schools should be aware of the impending danger that awaits admitting unqualified candidates into the system. The adverse effects largely remains with the school. All hands must be on deck to rid the system of students who don't meet basic requirements. They should be left to patronize the many business ventures around masquerading as universities or try harder the next time.

Finally, I submit that universities should organise seminars and re-orientation programmes for lecturers, often reminding them that their ability to impact knowledge is only evident by the result they produce. These universities should also allow online questionnaires to enable students evaluate their own lecturers and the system in general. This simple idea would keep the administrators informed of the basic need of the students and the lecturers in check.

christejames:
This is interesting. It's high time schools started churning out fully baked and knowledgeable graduates. We can't continue with that trend of trying to outpace one another in inanities such as those poor grades...

We will get the someday and I think we are on course already starting with 2019.

writerights:


Although the trend has been for long, I believe 2019 may just be too far. A little shake off at NUC can go a long way in saving that innocent prospective student a complete world of misery. It should begin now!

Lalasticlala

darfay:
Little wonder state university graduate are the least competitive in the labour market even below those from private universities at the end of the day they end up hurting themselves. That lasu produces 15x less First Class than unilag does not in anyway bring it close to unilag in terms of anything

writerights:


Although the trend has been for long, I believe 2019 may just be too far. A little shake off at NUC can go a long way in saving that innocent prospective student a complete world of misery. It should begin now!

Lalasticlala

HigherEd:

I wonder why threads like this never make front page yet we are forced to choke on Ini Edo's slaying outfit amongst many unedifying and unhelpful news on nairaland's home page. I do hope Seun and his fellow mods understand the power their platform wields and how it can correct ills in the society by sparking up debates that is helpful to people of today and tomorrow.

HigherEd:
As per state universities, it is just a big problem. The students themselves glorify in their universities "stress" and would be the first to tell you excitingly how difficult it is to excel. That is why it is a vicious cycle because the ones who end up as lecturers end up doing the same wrong things..

Nobody said success must be easy. But why create man made hurdles to stumble your students deliberately?
The challenge in education is in tackling the old ways and creating solutions to existing problems. It should allow for creativity, innovation and scholarship.

If you are graduating 26 first class out of 10,000 students then you are certainly doing it wrong. You must have overcrowded classes, vindictive lecturers, poor pedagogy, poor teaching aids...

HigherEd:

I wonder why threads like this never make front page yet we are forced to choke on Ini Edo's slaying outfit amongst many unedifying and unhelpful news on nairaland's home page. I do hope Seun and his fellow mods understand the power their platform wields and how it can correct ills in the society by sparking up debates that is helpful to people of today and tomorrow.

writerights:


This is one big issue beats my imagination. How on earth do you fight for the oppressed who justifies his oppressor? I should say OAU students and alumni have particularly exhibited this trait than perhaps any other school in the universe. When you listen to anyone brag about how stainous and breathtaking his programme is, ask around, he's a product of OAU and he takes pride in suffering. Really sad!

HigherEd:

Stockholm syndrome.... It's sad, but the root of all our struggles as a people. We want to do things the same way and expect different results.
They do not understand that the implications of this thing could mean lost job opportunities, lost scholarship opportunities.
ABUAD graduated 70 first class/700 total graduates some years ago. By the way 10% is a fair percentage to produce in saner climes. LASU graduates 26 first class/16,000 This simply means that those 70 ABUAD students would automatically rank higher in any application review than 15,974.

Let's face reality, no bank nor auditing firm would place LASU on priority employment over Babcock, ABUAD, AUN, Covenant, Pan Atlantic. This simply means In the next few decades the poorest Nigerians might actually be people from state universities because their universities crippled their chances of getting great jobs or scholarships.

The only bright side for folks from state universities is that the private universities don't produce too many grads a year to cause a noticeable damage. But there are still FG unis like UI which are aspiring to reach 35% First class turnover rate in the next few years.