Do you have a Sexually Transmitted Degree? Be patient and read the following article

http://thewillnigeria.com/opinion/9117-SEXUALLY-TRANSMITTED-DEGREES.html

SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DEGREES
THEWILL. 12/07/2011 22:04:00
SACKED EDO STATE UNIVERSITY EKPOMA LECTURER, MR PETER OTUBU WHO WAS CAUGHT PANTS DOWN IN A SEX-FOR-GRADE SCANDAL A FEW MONTHS AGO.

A friend of mine, a writer based in Abuja, surprised me recently when he asked if I knew what the acronym STD stood for. To underscore how ludicrous I found his question, I quickly retorted, “Of course, sexually transmitted diseases.” He guffawed – I should have noted a tinge of mischief in his tone – and then disabused me. “It stands for sexually transmitted degrees!”

This writer then went ahead to explain that the term was coined by another friend of his to account for the fact that many (too many, in fact) of Nigeria’s university and polytechnic students – mostly females, but some males as well – barter their bodies in exchange for grades. In effect, this inventive adaptation of a well known, frightening shorthand for venereal infestation seeks to sum up a disturbing social trend: students sleeping (or otherwise bribing) their way to a degree.

There are, one conjectures, multitudes of Nigerian bankers, engineers, lawyers, accountants, physicians, mass communicators, economists – to name a few – who flaunt sexually transmitted degrees, diplomas or certificates. Or degrees that were priced and bought, not earned through diligent study.

One must stress that there are many academics and students who don’t – and won’t – participate in this monumental self-debasement and degradation of education. Even so, there’s no question that those who take part, as lecturers or students, in this scandalous cheapening of education constitute a significant percentage.

I was always aware of the existence of rogue academics who sexually exploit their students, or induce them into parting with cash, for good grades. But I came to grasp the dimensions of the crisis when I spent part of the 2001-2002 academic year as a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Lagos.

As I prepared to give my first class, a colleague observed that I seemed “excited.” When I confirmed that I was, he said, in a discouraging tone, “But these students don’t want to learn anything. They prefer to pay cash or offer sex for their grades.”

“Is it possible,” I queried, “that some lecturers are not keen on teaching – and so prefer to collect cash or to bed the students?”

“No, believe me,” this lecturer insisted. “They are not interested in learning.”

Of course, the terrible transaction of buying and selling grades involves two parties, but the seller of grades – the lecturer – strikes me as having far more power than the buyer. At any rate, with all the determination in the world on the part of students to buy good grades, the sordid deal cannot be sealed unless and until a lecturer consents.

With that in view, I told my students the first day of class that I had heard that some of them purchased their grades with cash or their bodies. Then I warned: “The only way you can do well in this class is by working hard. I don’t accept financial or sexual gratification.”

To their credit, most of the students rose to the challenge. They read the texts and came to class ready to ask questions and to participate. Still, a few were too dyed in corrupt colors to take me at my word. One young woman was particularly persistent in asking me to change my rules. “Is it a crime to love?” she asked me over the phone. “Who do you love?” I asked. “You,” she answered. When I told her that I was her teacher, married and unavailable to be loved, she was far from fazed. “I’m not asking you to leave your wife,” she informed me. “I won’t let you borrow me from my wife for even a minute,” I said. Her response: “Why do you hate me so much?”

When I gave exams, another student – male this time – approached me. After giving me the information – which he seemed to think remarkable – that he and I were from Anambra State, he said, “Bros, what can we do about this exam?” Feigning ignorance of where the conversation was headed, I asked, “Did you take the exam?” When he nodded yes, I added: “That’s all I need from you. I will grade you and everybody else.” “No, bros,” he pursued, his tone more earnest. “As a bros, tell me how much I can give you,” he implored. Enraged, I told him how ashamed I was of his conduct – and then waved him away.

An old acquaintance – at the time a final year law student I had known since the mid-1980s – had observed the encounter. He approached and asked why I seemed so irritated. His response to my account of events was even more shocking. He advised me to call back the student and take the money he was willing to offer. “If he fails the exam, he can go and give the money to somebody in the records office – and they will change the grade. Since you’re the one who suffered to teach him, you should be the one to enjoy the money.”

I was astonished to hear a lawyer-to-be pass off such inanity as logic. He was asking me to anticipate wrongdoing by another person, and to move fast to, a, do the wrong thing first and, b, claim the prize – being the one who “suffered.”

This whole business of buying and selling grades is a touchy subject. A few years ago, Ernest Emenyonu, one of Nigeria’s most esteemed literary scholars, ignited a storm when he detailed how some Nigerian lecturers demand cash from their students as a condition for handing out good grades, supervising projects, or awarding degrees. Titled “Sorting: New Vocabulary in Nigerian Higher Institutions,” his piece offered several examples of such unscrupulous behavior.

Emenyonu, who had a distinguished career as a professor at the University of Calabar and whose current teaching address is at the University of Michigan (in Flint), wrote that the terminology “sorting” has become part of the tragic economy of trading in grades and degrees. According to him, sorting means, “to check out lecturers and determine how much a student could pay in return for a grade not worked for or earned through the academic process.” Professor Emenyonu then revealed that some lecturers “bargain in tens of thousands of Naira while some high profile lecturers and professors quote in hundreds of thousands.”

My sadness grows each time I reread Emenyonu’s essay or recall my personal experiences with students who wanted grades that cast them as excellent, but who were loath to do the requisite work. As Emenyonu stated, many students of tertiary institutions “are receiving no worthwhile education at all,” their sponsors “paying for their children to be duped by lecturers and if they learn anything at all, it is experiencing first hand how to camouflage appearance for reality.” Emenyonu continued: “The sharp ones among them are receiving their first orientation into obtaining goods, laurels, and wealth by false pretences, alias, 419. However, the most irreparable harm done by ‘Sorting,’ is that Education is being mirrored as inconsequential in the development of a nation; the degrees we award have no value and the years spent in institutions of higher learning are irrelevant, and rigor as a crucial virtue to be acquired in the course of one's education is an avoidable and unnecessary self imposed hardship.”

I had a drink in Lagos with a Nigerian entrepreneur who’s in the middle of hiring staff for his start-up company. He told of graduates of accountancy who are ignorant of the most basic terms and procedures in the field. He noted the large pool of candidates he must interview before he finds somebody who appears barely qualified. “It’s embarrassing and frustrating,” he said.

The malaise in Nigeria’s education is a microcosm of a larger cultural crisis. By and large, the ethic of the unearned, illicitly acquired preferment has been enshrined in Nigeria. Too many of us aspire to stupendous wealth, but disdain the patience, inventive enterprise and focus that facilitate material success in many other societies. As Emenyonu pointed out, Nigeria runs the risk of arriving at a point where earned and honorary degrees would become indistinguishable. After all, the recipient of a sexually transmitted degree is unlikely to be more versed in her/his field than a man who just gave a big donation to some university in exchange for a degree.

Much as Nigeria’s educational sector mirrors the broader problems of the society, we can stipulate that the country can’t move forward until it gets its educational house in order. No society has ever achieved its developmental goals by degrading the quality and standards of education.

The condition of Nigerian education demands the declaration of a state of emergency. As a corollary, a special commission to save education ought to be established. Nothing less would do. I’d give Emenyonu the last word: “It is about time parents and guardians took more interest in what goes on at the campuses of our tertiary institutions in the name of educating the young minds. What we sow today in our citadels of learning, we will reap tomorrow in the behavioral and mental disorientations of our children and children's children!”

Written by Okey Ndibe (okeyndibe@gmail.com).

Well, it's not only in Nigeria.
Widespread cheating and plagiarism seems to be the order of the day in the West even. Last week in the US, stories of widespread cheating by schools in the Atlanta area were rife, causing the schools superintendent to resign.

Let's face it, it's the Jazy Z, Beyonce, Don Jazzy, and D'Banj era. Young people like swag, cash, being high rollers, movie and music stars, and see school as a waste of time.

I read on Twitter today one Naija student in the US promised to slap her educational advisor - if only Don Jazzy could retweet her tweet

^^^

Ajanlekoko ( Baby-Katz VI), lucky you, it is your day.

Are you comparing Nigeria's "STD" situation with a one-off incident in the US?

Ystranger:

^^^

Ajanlekoko ( Baby-Katz VI), lucky you, it is your day.

Are you comparing Nigeria's "STD" situation with a one-off incident in the US?

What's up with the Baby-Katz fixation, lost-stranger?
As a matter of fact, yes I am.

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/atlantas-testing-scandal-adds-1007201.html

There is an article i read in May's Readers' Digest about professional ghostwriters, who do term papers, theses, and whatnot for Ivy League students in the US. Sorry the link is not available online.

In any case, why won't modern students cheat to pass, when you look at this article:

http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/113010/degree-not-worth-debt-cnnmoney

^^^

I am afraid you dont get my point.

"STD" is very rampant in Nigeria, at every stage of our educational process as a matter of fact. The only time I can say I did not encounter "STD" and  its variants was during G2 and Primary school FGC exams.

In the US, test taking/term papers is taken seriously. If you are caught, you WILL be punished for it.  Every college student at reputable colleges is made to sign honor codes at the beginning of every semester and before each exam. It is human nature to try to cheat or bend rules, but when there are no consequences, as with Nigeria, then it becomes an epidemic, which is not the case in the west.

My point: In Nigeria it is an epidemic. In the US, it is not. If a US college tells you that someone is capable, believe me, he/she is capable. The reverse, as we all know, is the case with Nigeria.

True, examination dishonesty goes on in the US, ghostwriters and what not, but the people using these ghost writers are actually not asking them to write their term papers from scratch, they just pay people to fine-tune it for them. In a way, to make it better/ "A" worthy. Trust me, term papers arent generic stuffs, anyone can write like that. A typical college student writes on average three term papers per term, depending on major, now multiply that by 8 and tell me where a typical student would get that kind of money from. Thats assuming, conservatively, $100 per page per paper.

Of course, there are people who can afford that, but I make bold to say that the average college student cannot afford to spend that much.

The only form of cheating that I can say is very rampant in the US is the use of brain stimulants. Well, whether using brain stimulants is cheating or not is a different topic for another day.

Ystranger:

^^^

I am afraid you dont get my point.

"STD" is very rampant in Nigeria, at every stage of our educational process as a matter of fact. The only time I can say I did not encounter "STD" and  its variants was during G2 and Primary school FGC exams.

In the US, test taking/term papers is taken seriously. If you are caught, you WILL be punished for it.  Every college students at reputable college is made to sign honor codes at the beginning of every semester and before each exam. It is human nature to try to cheat or bend rules, but when there are no consequences, as with Nigeria, then it becomes an epidemic, which is not the case in the west.

My point: In Nigeria it is an epidemic. In the US, it is not. If a US college tells you that someone is capable, believe me, he/she is capable. The reverse, as we all know, is the case with Nigeria.

True, examination dishonesty goes on in the US, ghostwriters and what not, but the people using these ghost writers are actually not asking them to write their term papers from scratch, they just pay people to fine-tune it for them. In a way, to make it better/ "A" worthy. Trust me, term papers arent generic stuffs, anyone can write like that. A typical college student writes on average three term papers per term, depending on major, now multiply that by 8 and tell me where a typical student would get that kind of money from. Thats assuming, conservatively, $100 per page per paper.

Of course, there are people who can afford that, but I make bold to say that the average college student cannot afford that.

The only form of cheating that I can say is very rampant in the US is the use of brain stimulants. Well, whether using brain stimulants is cheating or not is a different topic for another day.

Okay, I get you.
Cheaters are more sophisticated and scientific in the US
That's the problem i have with us in this Nigeria. We are just way too 'out there'

This is really too bad for our university system.I happened to be a course representative during my undergraduate days in Nigeria, i can say without mincing words, that the picture presented in the article above is a clear reflection of the situation.As soon as exams ended students would cluster around lecturers and ''connected'' students seeking ways to ''sort'' the course.A friend got his degree in a Nigerian university while still in the US.You can see how bad the system is.He won a visa lottery during his 3rd yr and left for the US.He has done his NYSC and now, the rest is history. But, throughout this period i have come to realise that the problem is not entirely that of the students or lecturers, rather, the university system as a whole. Most of this ''sorting'' are done by PG students who are attached to some professors and snr lecturers as graduate assistance.The workload for lecturers is really overwhelming, and in order to handle most of this work, marking and grading of students are given to graduate assistance, secretaries and whoever was available.This people being Nigerians resort to sorting in order to enrich themselves.So, the real sorting are done by the GAs and most lecturers seem not to be aware of the situation.I am not trying to exonerate the lecturers, sure there are few dishonest ones among them, but the bulk is done by secretaries and graduate students.

Also, our merit system in this country seem to have decayed.Mediocrity is celebrated at the expense of meritocracy.For instance, I have a few friends whom i know quite well worked hard during our school days and deserved whatever grade they may have graduated with, based one local standard.Until this moment (3 yrs now) they are yet to secure a job despite graduating with 2.1 whereas those who ''sorted'' are in high paying jobs earning fat salaries.So, why do i need to work hard when at the end of the day those who didn't apply the same principle get better results afterwards?

I do understand that  student laziness which leads to ''sorting'' is not peculiar to the Nigerian system, but ours seem to be endemic.Our school system is a reflection of what obtains at the larger Nigerian society.Honest and hard working people get rejected, dishonest and lazy people get promoted and celebrated.

AjanleKoko:

Okay, I get you.
Cheaters are more sophisticated and scientific in the US
That's the problem i have with us in this Nigeria. We are just way too 'out there'

i see the spambot set you free at last.
Sorry for my late response.
Multilinks are messing with me after hours big time.

mbulela:

i see the spambot set you free at last.
Sorry for my late response.
Multilinks are messing with me after hours big time.

Ol  boy, no be small thing.

@Topic,
Well . . . what can I say. Though, it's hilarious reading everyone's remonstrances. When I was in school, we saw it a little differently.
To us engineering and science students back then, we were the ones slaving. Widespread cheating was far more rampant with the social sciences and management sciences. All those economics, sociology, and accounting/banking & finance/bus-admin students. They all graduated with STDs as far as I'm concerned.

In Engineering, which lecturer you wan even sort back then? All those bitter and evil profs, frustrated graduates of MIT and Imperial College? A bribe would likely have guaranteed you an extra two years in school. It was the suave chaps in social sciences with their local swag and penchant for the babes who were 'reigning'. We just looked on with misery as our social science contemporaries graduated with cool grades without even showing up for class, while we were made to sweat our guts just to stay afloat.

Year later, when the banks started collapsing, I couldn't help but think . . . 

All those economics, sociology, and accounting/banking & finance/bus-admin students. They all graduated with STDs as far as I'm concerned.

You are right.The thing is rampant among the social sc, humanities and business majors, majority even copied their final year projects .But not all are bad as you reposed.I always say this;if not for lack of facilities our science and engineering graduates will be among the best in the world.This is evident in the level of academic discipline which they exhibit.

AjanleKoko:

What's up with the Baby-Katz fixation, lost-stranger?

Please, disregard Stranger's comment. He's a stirrer.

The term never referred to you. I only tried to annoy Ekt-bear and Naijaking and I have since apologized to them.

Never had you in mind, at all. Abeg.







Hey! Stranger, if I cash you heh?

AjanleKoko:

All those bitter and evil profs, frustrated graduates of MIT and Imperial College?

This cracked me up, though.

ola olabiy:


This cracked me up, though. 

Professor of English, with NO PHD

Oga mi sir

Ystranger:


Professor of English, with NO PHD

Oga mi sir

I no be teacher. I no study English. I just dey learn.

E je ki a gbadura fun Stranger.

Aduraaaaaaaaaa.

Fasting and prayer, please.

L'oruko awon Irunmole. Aduaaaaaaaaa