University of Nairobi students demand exam postponement
Some of engineering students at the University of Nairobi gather outside lecture halls after exams were disrupted on April 14, 2014. Some students said they were not properly prepared due to the just concluded Student Organization of Nairobi University (SONU) elections which took most of their time. Student leader Paul Ongili alias Babu Owino however blamed a recent strike by lecturers as the cause of inadequate preparation. PHOTO/JEFF ANGOTE
What you need to know:
- The students led by recently elected students’ leader, Paul Ongili alias Babu Owino stormed exam rooms and destroyed exam materials.
- According to Mr Ongili, the students want the administration to give them enough time to revise for the exam to compensate for the two weeks that was wasted during the recent lecturers’ strike.
- However, Ongili was elsewhere quoted during a local TV morning show saying that students want to recover time lost during recent students campaigns.
Exams at the University of Nairobi were Monday disrupted after students staged a demo demanding a postponement of examination date to next week.
The students led by recently elected students’ leader, Paul Ongili alias Babu Owino stormed exam rooms and destroyed exam materials.
Students from the School of Engineering who were almost completing their Mathematics paper were left in shock after a group of rowdy students stormed the exam room and tore their question papers and answer booklets.
“I have nothing to tell the press,” said the annoyed Dr Jeremiah Musuva who was supervising a Mathematics paper for third year students in the School of Engineering.
Some students claimed that they lost their belongings including exam cards during the mayhem.
“I have lost my exam card and I don’t know the time it will take to process another one,” Kennedy Nzioka, a third year engineering students told Nation.co.ke.
LECTURERS' STRIKE
According to Mr Ongili, the students want the administration to give them enough time to revise for the exam to compensate for the two weeks that was wasted during the recent lecturers’ strike.
Last month, lecturers from public varsities went on strike demanding payment of Sh3.9 billion that was part of Sh7.8 billion agreed upon between them and the government in a 2012 Collective Bargaining Agreement.
“We want the exam postponed to next week to give students enough time for revision.
Students wasted a lot of time during the lecturers’ strike,” said Mr Ongili who was elected last week to head the students’ body.
However, the students’ leader was Monday morning quoted saying that they wanted the administration to grant them one week for revision to recover for the time that was lost during the students campaigns to elect their leaders. He was speaking during a morning show on a local TV station.
He claimed that most of the students were not adequately prepared for the exam.
“The students are not adequately prepared to do an exam. We requested the administration to postpone the examination date for a week but they declined to honour our request,” he said.
The university administration has refuted such claims saying that no formal request was made over the same.
NO FORMAL REQUEST
“We to confirm that we have not received any formal request from student over the postponement of examination calendar,” said sources within the administration who requested to remain anonymous due to security reasons.
The source said it is only the university senate that has power alter the examination calendar but not the students.
“Students have no powers to decide the date of the examinations. The university statutes give such powers to the senate,” said the source.
The administration accused the students’ leader of disrupting the examination yet he was out of session.
“The students’ leader has no moral grounds to incite others not to do the exam yet second year law students are out of session.
He (Babu) is a second year law student,” said the source without disclosing specific steps that the university will take against the students who destroyed the exam materials.
The administration said the exams were only disrupted in the main campus but went on well in the other remaining nine UoN campuses.
