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First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? - Education - Nairaland

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First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by DangotePikin: 11:43pm On Apr 08, 2016
Another interesting one from a writer at Punch newspapers.

In recent times, a number of newspaper editorials have poured scorn on the trend in Nigerian private universities to award first class honours degrees. The thrust of their argument is that private universities have deregulated the degree such that they award it to students liberally as if it were expired calendars. The argument they put forward is, indeed, reasonable: when tertiary education in Nigeria had a far higher quality, first class honours were rare. Now that the standard of education has fallen so badly, the corresponding number of the degrees awarded has curiously shot up.

Nowadays, they argue, with enough cash in hand to send one’s child or ward to a private university, there is a higher guarantee that the kid would return with a far more marketable degree than what he would have obtained in a public institution; that private universities take away the high bar students are supposed to scale, replace it with an inferior one and consequently churn out first class honours degrees without their recipients exerting their bodies and souls enough to make such a coveted degree. In the end, the first class honours degree is like some kind of pure water – so commonplace that its essence is depreciated.

Therefore, they propose a form of regulation to the rate at which these degrees are awarded so that a higher standard of education can be maintained. To them, a first class degree should mean what it is, not a payback for an egregiously priced tuition fee. These are pretty interesting arguments and they deserve some attention, considering that the public university – a few of them, at least – is one of the last few places that one is likely to come across a functional degree in public institutions these days.

As private institutions burgeon – and they will – and the government continues to watch public universities fester, they will begin to displace public schools until they eventually supplant them in the same way that it happened at the primary and secondary school levels. One of the obituaries of public universities – and hopefully that time will never come – will be the issue of the class of degrees they award vis a vis emerging market reality.

To buttress the point about the disparity between public and private universities in the award of first class honours degrees, here are a few random examples from public universities in the past one year: University of Lagos, 3.25 per cent; University of Ibadan, 2.24 per cent; Kaduna State University, 1.2 per cent; Ahmadu Bello University, 0.67 per cent; University of Benin, 1 per cent; Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, 0.57 per cent; Obafemi Awolowo University, 0.84 per cent.

Compare this to figures from private universities in the same period: Bells University, 6.15 per cent; Benson Idahosa University, 5.62 per cent; Covenant University, 7.9 per cent; Babcock University, 3.88 per cent; Adeleke University, 8.8 per cent; Landmark University, 10.35 per cent.

The differences are quite glaring and while we can make a beeline for the familiar (and even prejudiced) argument of differing standards between public and private institutions, I believe no one can make an intelligent conclusion without some objective means of critically evaluating both places.

Do public universities really have a higher standard of evaluating students, thus resulting in a fewer award of first class honours degrees? Or do private universities, buoyed by market competition and the desire for higher enrolment figures, provide better resources for their students in order to be able to attain first class standards?

It would be helpful to know what is really going on so that we do not confuse dysfunctional and inoperable institutional rigidity for ‘high standards’.

The absence of an empirical pole to plank one’s conclusion notwithstanding, grade inflation is a reality in privately run schools. And I am not just talking about Nigeria. It happens rather frequently in the United States, which has the most highly ranked universities in the world. Grade inflation became such a worrisome issue that, at some point, an Ivy League institution like Princeton University had to recommend a cap on the percentage of the A grade that could be awarded to students. Even in another Ivy League like Harvard, inflating grades to give students a leg up in the job market is an established fact.

The problem is that when education becomes a commodity, customers have to be always right. That kind of capitalist transactional mindset is rather dangerous for an enterprise like education. But then, consider that nobody pays a hefty sum of money to go to the university only to be handed a certificate that they cannot even use to eat. Something has to give and often the side that yields is that of the supplier who needs to keep the market happy.

Recall that some years ago, the Vice-Chancellor of Babcock University, Prof. James Makinde, declared that their school would never award a third class or a pass degree. One cannot blame the VC for being responsive to marketing reality, although the question of how much they prioritise functional employability over learning remains. In the bid to usher students through the classroom, packaged and ready for the job market, do they mortgage knowledge, education, sound reasoning and character for those pre-paid certificates?

The argument about using the rate of first class honours degrees as a yardstick for measuring a university’s standards can be made for and against public and private institutions. One can make an example of the case of Ayodele Daniel Dada, the young man who made a perfect score of 5.0 in the University of Lagos recently. According to the university administrators, the young man broke a record, accomplishing a feat that no one had ever done in the history of the university. His achievement is no mean deed and I congratulate him on this outstanding success. I read it somewhere that he got job offers from several multinationals. I hope the University of Lagos also had the good judgment to offer him a job too, along with a fully funded scholarship to immediately pursue a postgraduate degree. That kind of brain should be seduced with generous offers so that he is retained within the institution to produce others like him.

Once the buzz about Dada’s success dies down, we should also ask why it took the entire lifespan of a university for someone to attain its highest academic achievement at the undergraduate level. Rather than presume that this is simply a case of high academic standards coinciding with individual genius, we should engage other possibilities that make such a goal almost an overreach in Nigerian universities: inbuilt academic eugenics that manifests in unsupportive institutional structure – sadistic lecturers who deflate (or in some cases, withhold) grades; poor and dilapidating infrastructure; bureaucracies and administrative arrogance; inexistent means of institutional redress; and an overall lousy and disinterested attitude in the students’ progress.

The last point, I must say, is common in Nigerian public universities mainly because their enrolment figures are guaranteed to increase yearly whether they are efficient or not. School funding and other privileges are not tied to students’ experience. Therefore, they can afford the condescending manner they deal with students.

As a product of a Nigerian university myself and one who has dealt with students in various capacities over the years, I know that public universities have a tendency to treat knowledge and the acquisition of it like some encrypted data that should be kept inaccessible until there comes along a lone genius that can hack into the firewall of impenetrable institutional structure and do the virtually impossible. What they call “standards” in Nigerian tertiary institutions need to be interrogated, not merely surmised. This deserves a rigorous study, not a surface assessment using the first class honours degree that they award as a benchmark. In the Ivy Leagues of this world, students make perfect scores far more regularly than they do in Nigerian universities and nobody can successfully argue that this disparity is simply because our universities have a higher standard.

http://www.punchng.com/first-class-honours-kini-big-deal/

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Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by autofreak2020(m): 12:07am On Apr 09, 2016
This is thought provoking, no one want to run a business at a loss. Oftentimes, I do think that oversees Universities also give higher grades to African students as a means to attract foreign students as well. I may be wrong though.

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Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by timilehing(m): 6:11am On Apr 09, 2016
Nothing special
Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by Kylekent59: 6:13am On Apr 09, 2016
The reason u were sent to school to study is to graduate and show d world what u gat using ur intelligency. U ave to be independent.

1 Like

Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by Acermoon(m): 6:13am On Apr 09, 2016
I don't know ur school or department... But first Class No be joke for ABU....

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Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by Kylekent59: 6:14am On Apr 09, 2016
Kul
Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by jordyspices: 6:14am On Apr 09, 2016
Spot on

1 Like

Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by babyfaceafrica: 6:17am On Apr 09, 2016
What's the use of first class,if you have nothing to show for it?...come UNILAG,UI or IFE ..kon say kini big deal for first class?,you think say na moin moin.....mention five first class students in private universities that have done well,and I will mention 15 2.1 graduates of public schools that your so-called first class in private schools cannot match their achievements

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Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by Akkord4gov: 6:18am On Apr 09, 2016
Na Firstclass Graduates be their prob now

Y d hating now. There are a lot of big deal. They worked so hard for it and avoid all distraction,they need to be appreciated

Modified,most of us just rushed to comment base on the misleading OP's title
Anyway,the writer has some salient points,these private Universities have really made First Class a common thing. And even the Federal Uni for those that mentioned UI,OAU etc. Yes,check the numbers of First Class Graduates in the Federal Uni compare to State. You will hear numbers like 85,72,some even 100+ compare to schools like Lasu,Eksu where they manage just 6,7,8 or highest 20 which is very rare. I am not comparing the standard and quality of these First Class graduates between Federal Uni or State but trying to buttress the point of the OP. One of my lecturer here in Eksu always say and I quote"if you graduate with even just 4.5 here in Eksu,u will be overall best student in Federal Uni and become the lecturer of your lecturers in Private Uni". grin

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Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by Nobody: 6:18am On Apr 09, 2016
The environment in private Universities favours education and learning. A student in a public school has so much to content with. From poor facilities to the injustice in the system, not to talk of corruption. At a point, all you care about is just your survival, you just want to graduate.

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Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by Nobody: 6:18am On Apr 09, 2016
Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by adaweezy(m): 6:18am On Apr 09, 2016
I agree with what the writer as written despite being a public school graduate myself it is simply outrageous to rate a school were the lecturer's word is law without any external or internal mechanism controlling their behavior when they turn sadistic or form narcissistic approaches to life over another where the actions of lecturers are closely monitored.
Public Universities and it's hypothetical standards need to be thoroughly investigated from the recycling of educational materials and the lack of professional research and development capacities in such Universities.

7 Likes

Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by sholay2011(m): 6:20am On Apr 09, 2016
autofreak2020:
This is thought provoking, no one want to run a business at a loss. Oftentimes, I do think that oversees Universities also give higher grades to African students as a means to attract foreign students as well. I may be wrong though.

You may want to join Thinkerspool WhatsApp group for readers and book lovers.
www.nairaland.com/2818120/creative-whatsapp-group-strictly-readers/8#44197279
shocked shocked You are really wrong on this one.

7 Likes

Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by lilmax(m): 6:20am On Apr 09, 2016
Hmmm
Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by AyamConfidence(m): 6:21am On Apr 09, 2016
.
Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by Chuksemi(m): 6:22am On Apr 09, 2016
Oga, there is big deal. First class wherever it comes from is a big deal. Trying to belittle some degrees by questioning the institution is laughable. Harvard, Oxford, Reading and almost all foreign universities charge higher than our private schools combined, would you also question the degrees from this institutions?

2 Likes

Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by Welcomme: 6:23am On Apr 09, 2016
I see no big deal there...If they like they should give all their student first class; that is not a yardstick that they will b greater than me in life.

1 Like

Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by mrphysics(m): 6:23am On Apr 09, 2016
After paying huge amount of fees in private university, you expect them to come out with 2:2?? You must be joking, minimum in private university is 2:1. I have had an encounter with a first class student of one private university in Enugu who came for research project in my school, I was shocked when I realised that even our 2:2 classmates are better than her, she couldn't talk till she left.

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Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by Ejemehn(m): 6:23am On Apr 09, 2016
Well said. A clear example "Davido, Heard he made a 2:1. After spending so much time outside the school environment, and still graduated with a 2:1?"
God help our generation

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Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by Olukokosir(m): 6:24am On Apr 09, 2016
Beta go read ya books nd cum out wf @ least 2.2

1 Like

Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by Chuksemi(m): 6:24am On Apr 09, 2016
Kini?
Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by LoremIpsum: 6:25am On Apr 09, 2016
Abeg hu on jhen for here? I wan sharge fone.
Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by flyca: 6:25am On Apr 09, 2016
Kylekent59:
The reason u were sent to school to study is to graduate and show d world what u gat using ur intelligency. U ave to be independent.
You have no moral justification to comment on this threadundecided

5 Likes

Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by Nobody: 6:27am On Apr 09, 2016
Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by Nobody: 6:27am On Apr 09, 2016
kini big deal? like say na free
Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by Caseless: 6:28am On Apr 09, 2016
Well, I have the notion that a third-class from my school is better than a second-class (upper or lower) from private university(this not always true though).

With due respect to my friends who graduated from private-uni , I hold this notion against you not because I'm a product of a public system, but because of environment and so many reasons highlighted by the writer of this article.


My department is over 46 years old (as far as my alma Mater is concerned ), and it has been able to produce just four first-class its entire history. But a university established 5 years ago has produced more than 100 first-class.


First-class honor has been commercialized and commonized by private universities.

5 Likes

Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by Caseless: 6:29am On Apr 09, 2016
flyca:


You have no moral justification to comment on this threadundecided
are u saying u have no 'intelligency' to get what he meant? I laff!
Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by Gaddafithe2nd(m): 6:32am On Apr 09, 2016
Despite all the first class and 2:1, many of our graduates aren't innovative. Smh

2 Likes

Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by Ejemehn(m): 6:35am On Apr 09, 2016
Caseless:
are u saying u have no 'intelligency' to get what he meant? I laff!

"INTELLIGENCY"....My Ibo brothers will say "Bekee"....."supu"

1 Like

Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by olaolulazio(m): 6:35am On Apr 09, 2016
They are the first in class!
That's d big deal.
Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by scozy(m): 6:36am On Apr 09, 2016
.
Re: First Class Honours: Kini Big Deal? by Usika(m): 6:37am On Apr 09, 2016
There should have been a big deal in making a first class in any Nigerian universities but due to our fallen standard of education there is no more big deal about it. In the same vein other grades are valueless: second class upper, second class lower third class etc.
Private universities awarding first class is not the issue. The problem started from public universities where bribery and corruption for grades by students and lecturers have become deep rooted and a viable source of our valueless education. Over the years the story had grown worse. And now it has become a menace that has spread to the private sector. I'm not suprised when students troop out of schools with amazing grades that they cannot defend. The corruption in the labour market encourages it as well: you get job mostly by knowing somebody irrespective of your ability to defend your results be it high or low grade.
As for solution, our hopes are high that the war against corruption agenda of Buhari will get to the education sector.

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