• You still do it in clever way –Students
• No, we don’t –Lecturers
By Jet Stanley Madu
The Director, Nubi Education Counseling Limited, Mrs. Rose Omonubi, recently raised some dust when she alleged that many Nigerian lecturers have turned students into Automated Teller Machines (ATM), through sale of handouts despite the ban on the practice in tertiary institutions.
Omonubi, a seasoned educationist, consultant and education/career counselor made this observation while doing an x-ray of some of the challenges in the nation’s education sector, at this year’s Nubi Education College Fair held at the Southern Sun Hotel, Ikoyi, Lagos.
She stated that the reason lecturers do this is because they are poorly remunerated. “But if they are well-looked after, I think they wouldn’t be doing things like that.” She advised governments, at Federal and state levels, to take urgent steps to rescue the universities from imminent collapse by setting aside special fund to cater for research, insisting that research is what makes or mars a university.
The controversy generated by Omonubi’s observation that lecturers now see students as ATM machines caught the attention of students and lecturers alike. Most lecturers who spoke on the matter denied that they still engage in the practice.
At the Department of Communications Studies, Lagos State University (LASU), Dr. Toyosi Olugbenga Samson Owolabi dissociated himself from the sale of handouts which he said should be discouraged, noting that he finds contentment in his job as a lecturer and researcher.
At Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Ijanikin, Lagos, (ACOED), Mr. Taiwo Aiyedun, a lecturer in the Political Science Department, dismissed the claim that lecturers still indulge in the practice, adding that it has been forbidden in the college since 2005. He, however, added that as academics, the lecturers, from time to time, attend conferences, workshops and seminars and other training programmes. And a lecturer may decide to compile and document intellectual outputs from such programmes. And where they find them useful to students, may recommend that they get them.
Mr. Afikuyomi Johnson of the General Studies Education Unit of the college described it as an act that attracts penalty because there is an outright ban on it. “A lecturer selling his own published work, such as a book is not permitted in the college,” he said.
The Vice Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Colleges of Education (ACOED chapter), Dr. Oladayo Akanmu, said that it is a gross misconduct for anyone to be involved in such in the college. “You can find out from any of the students. No lecturer would sell handout to them; it is highly prohibited,” he remarked. He claimed that owing to the prohibition of sale of textbooks and handouts the institution has consequently been rated no. 1 in the whole of Nigeria.
But inquiries from some of the students revealed that a handful of lecturers still ply sale of the handouts trade. The materials they want students to buy are usually on display in bookshops in and around the campus, they claimed. But they admit that though the practice is under ban, the handouts are very helpful.
The Public Relations Officer of the Student Union of the college, Miss Olumuyiwa Damilola, a 300 level Agric Education student, stated that although lecturers do not sell hands openly some of them do so indirectly by referring students to a particular seller and saying it is optional for the students.
“So, they’re selling this thing,” she said. “But they’re framing it in such a way that students will not be able to quote them. Even, sometimes when students report back to them that “oh, you asked us to go to so and so man, they would tell you they never sent you anywhere. But in my own department, no lecturer sells handouts. They may give us materials to duplicate. And that has helped us much.”
A student who completed his Higher National Diploma at the Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Owerri, Imo State, last September, also attested to the continuing sale of handouts by few lecturers across faculties and departments in the institute.
The student who did not want his name in print, claimed that even during the last semester before their final exams, some lecturers sold handouts to them. He listed some of the handouts sold at the Department of Cooperative Economics as ACC 314 (Business Finance), BAM 313 (Quantitative Studies in Business) and PAS 312 (Store Management).
According to him, some award marks for handouts while some of the lecturers who have authored books sell such to students or give assignments based on the books. Another student from Kwara State Polytechnic said that although the ban placed on the sale of handouts at the time of his Ordinary National Diploma held, but upon his return from internship, he noticed that most lecturers now sell handouts.
He revealed other ways the lecturers use in extorting money from students. “Apart from the sale of handouts, sometimes when we have a test, they will tell us to contribute some money for photocopying of question papers. Another tactic is when we want to have group assignments, some lecturers may tell us to pay some money for practical.”
A 400 level Business Administration student at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka, Anambra State said that although sale of handouts is officially prohibited and discouraged in the institution, there are other ways the lecturers use in making students to part with their money.
For instance, some of them, he revealed, would place books authored by them in specific bookshops, and ask students to go buy only from those bookshops. Then they go ahead to ensure that only students who bought and possess the books participate in their CA (Continuous Assessments).