Handouts of pain, misery

When Medinat (not real name) gained admission into one of the Kwara State owned tertiary institutions last year after a very long wait for such opportunity to come her way, her joy knew no bound. It was a step towards realising her dream for bright future and so the family was overwhelmingly joyous for the privilege. Medinat's poor mum, a petty trader hurriedly pooled resources together for school fees and other miscellaneous payments as required and prayed for success in her daughter's educational pursuit. But their joy seems shortlived as Medinat is now on the verge of pulling out of school owing to pressure of the huge financial demands of schooling occasioned by sales of course handouts and textbooks at inflated prices by lecturers in her institution of learning. For failing to buy some of the handouts, she has been scored low by her teachers in some courses. Academic failure stares her in the face. Failure, not because she isn't studious or brilliant but as a result of her financial incapacity to purchase the numerous handouts/textbooks authored by the institution's lecturers and made compulsory. Reportedly, the purchase of course handouts attracts marks, which gives the students no other choice than to buy. Presently, the family is downcast because their hope for a bright future via sound education for Medinat is dimming by the day. The financial cost of keeping her in school is becoming unbearable, her constant demand for money to buy course handouts has cut a deep hole in the family's collective pocket. With this experience, Medinat now has the mindset that education is accessible only to the rich. She strongly believes that education has been priced out of hands of those at the lower rung of the societal ladder. Medinat is just one of the several indigent students in our citadels of learning, suffering from sheer exploitation by lecturers. With none to make a case for them, they have resigned to fate and continued to bear their 'cross' in silence. Some unfortunate ones have dropped out when they could no longer withstand the financial strain of schooling, while others are struggling to pull through. This practice discourages students with poor economic background, who are determined to get education. It is unfortunate that this is happening even after the state House of Assembly had last year, proscribed the sales of handouts to students in all tertiary institutions in the state, and directed management of all the tertiary institutions in the state to ensure that all lecturers comply with the directive. In addition, the lawmakers ordered the management of tertiary institutions to take disciplinary measures on erring lecturers. So, one cannot but wonder why this anomaly subsists in our educational institutions. Why the rule is being scorned and the management has refused to bat an eye, is baffling and raises suspicion. Lecturers are said to have devised different tricks to force handouts on students some of which are irrelevant to their courses of study or sub-standard, while creating the impression that those who fail to buy would likely have carry-overs in the courses concerned. This, of course is a welcome development for indolent students, who are willing to do just about anything to pass but study. These lazy students know they would be awarded marks arbitrarily by the lecturers for the purchase of the course handouts or textbooks. With the sales of handouts fast becoming a norm in tertiary institutions, lecturers no longer see class attendance as a necessity. The students are expected to buy the course handouts or textbook (which the lecturers mostly claim are self explanatory) and study on their own; in clusters or individually as they so desire using the 'course material(s).' A strategy, which has proved to be academically unrewarding. It is disheartening that lecturers have shirk their moral responsibilities towards their students; making inordinate pecuniary gains take precedence over everything else. Little wonder the quality of graduates churn out from our tertiary institutions is nothing to write home about. No thanks to this devious practice which has taken shine off teaching and learning in the school environment. Understandably, the harsh economic realities faced by Nigerians has made lecturers to devise ways of shoring up their take home at the end of the month, but this shouldn't be a license to truncate future dreams of indigent undergraduates, who see education as a viable tool to fight poverty. Lecturers are not supposed to demand any form of gratification from students for their handout, it is unethical. It must however be noted that there's nothing wrong in lecturers publishing textbooks, but it is not right for the author to be the one to market his books. There are laid down guidelines as regards book publication, which must be duly followed. The author is expected to get a publisher who is interested in financing the production of his book. It is the publisher that will publish it, launch it, market and sell the book. So, it is morally wrong for lecturers to publish books with the sole aim of selling to students. Nonetheless, there is the need for the management of the institutions to spell it out that the sales of course handouts or textbooks for whatever reason, either with the promise of giving extra marks or for the purpose of making extra money from students, is totally wrong, illegal and a punishable offence. It must be made known to all that it is an offence for any lecturer to coerce students into buying handouts or textbooks. Internal monitoring mechanisms have to be put in place to discourage this illegality among lecturers. Since teachers do not want to get to heaven before accessing their reward, lecturers should be given all that is due to them to cater for their needs. This will help cut back on this problem, which is taking its toll on students. Disciplinary committee should be constituted in the schools to handle such cases and mete out appropriate sanction to erring lecturers. The committee must checkmate this unwholesome act among lecturers. The committee must ensure that Lecturers live up to their responsibilities; make sure that every lecturer attends lecture, gives out note for lecture free of charge. Again, conference marking should be adopted to give students confidence in the system. This should serve as a clarion call on the state Ministry of Tertiary Education, Science and Technology, to look into this issue in a bid to addressing the problem. This must be on the priority list of the incoming commissioner of the ministry. Sales of handouts in tertiary institution constitute pain in the neck of affected students. It is high time lecturers stopped handing out misery to