There is a lingering controversy in the Accounting Department of Joseph Ayo Babalola University (JABU) in Ikeji-Arakeji, Osun State.
Of the 78 graduating students that wrote the school’s 2012/2013 final year examination in the department, only 29 were cleared for graduation while the other 49 have been asked to repeat the session.
A source in the department said the affected students’ failure to pass Strategic Management course made the management to take the decision. The students are asking the authorities to wave the course to allow them graduate.
“Initially, 24 students were officially certified for graduation. Along the line, names of five students were slotted in to make it 29. To me, that is curious and I sense foul play,” one of the students told CAMPUSLIFE.
The affected students were said to have made several efforts to persuade the management to allow them graduate with their colleagues, but their plea fell on deaf ears as the management refused to shift ground.
When it became clear that the management would not wave the course, the students were said to have contacted a stakeholder in the university to plead on their behalf. But the university maintained its position that the students would retake the course.
Some of the students, who spoke to CAMPUSLIFE, urged the authorities to consider their situation, saying they could not afford high tuition to be paid next session.
One of them, who pleaded for anonymity, said: “The problem is just a course that we failed. When the result came out, we were surprised there was mass failure. We called for our scripts to be remarked but the management said there was nothing they could do about it. I have never failed a course since I was admitted into this university. It is surprising that I am failing a course for the first time and management is saying I cannot graduate. What that means is that I am going to pay another tuition fee next session to retake the course. This is the height of insensitivity.”
Another student said: “I see no reason our scores should not be upgraded. I still wonder how we all failed that simple course. The university should be considerate and have mercy on us. To pay such a huge amount as tuition to retake the course amounts to exploitation. This should be utterly condemned.”
A parent, who spoke with our correspondent, expressed displeasure over the refusal of the university to wave the course.
She said: “We have made several efforts to persuade the management to allow these students graduate but our pleas have been ignored. Even in federal universities, they still make amendment for graduating students in situations like this one. So, I will have to cough out another N500, 000 again for my child to graduate?”

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/graduating-students-beg-management-over-mass-failure/