By Damilare Ajiboye
Only a few things have interested students of the University of Ibadan since the institution announced a tentative virtual learning for the 2020/2021 academic session. One of those things is the hope that soon there would be a switch from the virtual method to the usual physical and interactive learning mode.
Not that the current “can you hear me, can you see my screen” method has failed; in fact, by popular opinion, the premier university seems to have been having it easy dragging round pegs into their round holes, but then, what do we all say about old soldiers never dying? Students that have tasted the boisterous life on campus would have a tough time seeing any good in the new method, so the news of physical resumption would always have them fired up.
For weeks now, there have been different speculations about when the University of Ibadan would open up for physical resumptions. When it does, would the halls of residence be opened, and how much would the accommodation fee for students be for the rest of the session? As expected, all these speculations generated are more confusion for the students and the university community. In a bid to settle the dust, UCJ UI decided to look into the matter. This engagement has yielded some helpful information for as many interested in the university’s resumption.
To make preparations for the rest of the 2020/2021 academic session, we found out that the university management has set up an Emergency Remote Teaching Committee to look into the feasibility of resumption and present their finding to the university senate for consideration and possible approval. This Committee contains the president and vice president of the Students Union, Akeju Olusegun and Aishat Oladiti, who are respectively representing the interest of the Union. The ERT Committee has long concluded its findings and is now presenting its proposals on resumption to the university management.
Part of the proposal submitted includes three options for resumption and conclusion of the 2020/2021 first semester, which, we learnt, have been forwarded to the university management by the ERT Committee.
The first option regarding resumption is a full-blown virtual method which suggests that all students maintain the status quo, write their continuous assessment test and then first semester’s examination from the comfort of their homes. The second option is a blended resumption, which would entail only the physical resumption of students whose learning assessment requires that they be on campus for their laboratory works and experiments and those whose examination is such that it cannot be conducted online. Those who do not fall into this bracket would proceed with the virtual method for their continuous assessments and examinations.
The third option is the full-blown physical resumption, which entails that students resume physically for revision, continuous assessment and examinations.
Of these three options, our source disclosed that the management would likely drop the first two options because of the cost of achieving them and other associated technical issues such as the unpredictability of network connections and the preparedness of the two key stakeholders of the university (the lecturers and the students) to flow with a hitch-free conduct of examinations and rounding-off of the semester.
Though these two options are still being considered, the balance of decision, we have learnt, seems to be tilting towards a full-blown physical resumption. This, however, is not without its guidelines.
Suppose the full-blown physical resumption would be approved, two main things being considered by the university managements are the opening of the halls of residence and putting in place Covid-19 protocols. UCJ UI has learnt that in the proposal made to the university management by the ERT Committee, there is an urgency clause that speaks to putting in place hand-washing and other health measures in faculties, halls of residence, administrative and academic buildings and other strategic places in the university campus before there is an approval for physical resumption.
Regarding the opening of the halls of residence, we gathered that preparations are on the way to open all the halls of residence on campus for students’ accommodation during the full-blown physical resumption. However, unlike before, the halls of residence would only run at 50% carriage capacity, and allocation of rooms would be on a first-come-first-serve basis. UCJ UI also gathered that if the full-blown physical resumption is favoured and approved by the university senate, the school will release new modalities regarding who would be eligible for accommodation and how the room allocation process would carry on in the various halls of residence. However, our source suggests that preferences are likely to be given to first-year and final year students.
When asked if students would still be paying the full cost of accommodation of thirty thousand naira since they would only be staying in the halls of residence for the period of revision and examination for the first semester and, of course, the whole of the second semester, our source told us that the position of the university management is that students pay the full cost of accommodation of thirty thousand naira.
To support this, the university management argued that even when the halls of residence were run at full capacity, the income generated from them was not enough to cater for their running cost and that those times, the university had to constantly source funds to fill in the expenditure gap of running the hostel. And now that the hostel would be run at half capacity, it would be a substantial financial burden on the university if students were to pay less than the usual thirty thousand naira since whether opened at full or half carriage capacity, there is no much marginal difference in the running cost of the halls of residence.
UCJ UI, however, gathered that the students’ representatives in the ERT Committee opposed this, and after series of back and forth with the management, the parties agreed students should pay eighty percent of the full accommodation fee for the remaining part of the first semester and the whole of next semester. Thus, eighty percent of thirty thousand naira would leave students paying twenty-four thousand naira for their accommodation for the remaining part of the 2020/2021 academic session.
Though preparations are being made towards a staggered resumption, all the plans and proposals of the ERT Committee still await the approval of the University Senate, which was supposed to have sat, considered and approved the ERT Committee proposal on Monday, May 10, 2021, but postponed the sitting to Wednesday, May 12, 2021.
As the federal government has declared both Wednesday and Thursday as a public holiday to mark the 2021 Eid Fitr celebrations, the Senate meeting would likely be postponed yet again. UCJ UI also gathered that before the University Senate is a proposal for the elongation of the semester by two or more weeks to allow adequate revision, continuous assessment test and examination.
Though it has been suggested that schools won’t be affected, with the new declaration of a phase IV lockdown by the federal government and the tightening of the Covid-19 protocols across the country, hands are still crossed to know whether the university would go along with the preparations to approve a full-blown physical resumption for students with essential health and hygiene measures, or it will make a U-turn and conclude the semester with the virtual mode it started with.
