₦airaland Forum

THE SAD STORY OF LASU'S PIONEER DENTAL STUDENTS

2008, was the year it all started, young chaps, intelligent and vibrant all met at a new land many were not so willing to stay back in, all with eye set on 'the promised land'(LASUCOM) they had never set foot on, it was a struggle of over 1000 students. When we finally arrived the shores of LASUCOM, it was like we had gotten a taste of heaven, we had fought and won a grueling academic battle. We actually believed we were the favored 10 who God had suddenly carved out dentistry for as the earlier promised 15 slots only was already filled by our medical counterparts, we never knew the name of the mammoth mountain that was before us, we had this inner peace, we were free, tabulae rasae, neonates who had no irk of understanding of the word ”ACCREDITATION”, we jumped from pillar to post as every other medical student did, attended every class, wrote every exam (failed some passed some). But we were awaken to a taste of our stormy journey on that ugly Friday when the school management, headed by the then provost met us and told us, that we would not be joining our medical counterparts in the 1st professional exams scheduled to start the next Monday (2 days to the exams) because we did not have the word; ”ACCREDITATION” it was a shocker many have not still recovered from, dreams lost, hopes shattered, imagine the stress of gruelling preparation for a professional exam, the first for that matter. Days rolled into months and months to over a year, we wrote letters, we fought, our parents fought and we finally in late 2012 got a partial accreditation which enabled us to write our first professional exams with the class directly below us, we never joined our medical counterparts again till date, except for once that is worth mentioning when we joined them for path and pharm classes, while we tarry for the accreditation, to our greatest surprise we were asked to standup and then asked to leave the class and go back to our parents by the then then vice chancellor. we all had tears of shame and sorrows on our cheeks, indelible marks of deep seated pain dented our hearts as we saw the doors of our future shutting down before our very eyes, many lost hope, 2 of us immediately left the school, but we the remaining 8 have been gallant. Ever since that day, we have been engaging the VC, provosts after provosts, deans after deans, tenures after tenures on the need to make plans and act for the final full accreditation Which usually comes up 4 years after the partial accreditation NO ONE LISTENED!. All we were told was read your books. Now we are once again at crossroads, faced with the stumbling block of Accreditation as we have been due for graduation since last year.The new VC and provost promised us a graduation date of latest August, 2016 after earlier schedules of graduation were moved for a record 3 times. we have gotten the governor to sign and approve the 100Million budgeted for the 2nd accreditation, we should be happy but there is a ”BUT” The ministry of health chaired by the commissioner for health Dr jide idris has refused to release the already approved funds to our school for the Accreditation process. We were told it would "take almost another year for us to graduate" as the money will be delayed for bureaucratic reasons thereby stretching our stay in medical school to10 years .
On other adjoining issues the partial accreditation earlier stated is also threatened, as in barely four months a mandatory visit of the Medical &Dental council of Nigeria( MDCN ) for a renewal process should happen.9 years have rolled by Since we started this agonising and seemingly endless journey. Our medical counterparts have graduated and are almost done with internship while we remain in school full anguish and despair with no hope of graduation in site .

I'm sorry about your plight. I also gained admission to study Dentistry in LASU this year. Please, have you finally graduated? Please, could you advise me?

Dphn:
I'm sorry about your plight. I also gained admission to study Dentistry in LASU this year. Please, have you finally graduated? Please, could you advise me?

I think the accreditation issue has been resolved since by Ambode