Mass Failure in OAU Pharmacy Faculty: Students React, Blame Dean, Lecturers

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Sequel to the recently released results of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Faculty of Pharmacy students, which were marred with unprecedented mass failure as displayed on various social media platforms, some of the students have attributed the development to inefficiency of some lecturers and alleged stringent standard of the dean.

Investigating the cause of the huge failure in the faculty, Pharmanewsonline had exclusive chats with some students of the faculty who spoke with us on the ground of anonymity, as they revealed the various factors that brought about the situation, ranging from lack of cooperation from the faculty’s management and laziness on the part of some students.

According to a female student of the faculty, some students were of the opinion that the mass failure was due to the alleged strict nature of the new dean, Prof. Moses Akanmu, “as most students see him as someone who is strict and non-considerate, compared to the immediate past dean”.

She further blamed the failure on changes in administrative positions in most departments in the faculty, as Head of Departments (HODs) and Course Coordinators, were replaced at the commencement of the session. “These were some of the determining officers, and some of the elected officers are not so liberal”, she stated.

Another student, a male, further accused lecturers for the colossal failure in the faculty, saying it simply shows the quality of lecturers and type of content they deliver to the students.

He stated that “As much as we would want to name factors that could have caused such results, the truth is they differ from class to class, from person to person. However, one truth remains constant through it all, that those who are imparting students should take more responsibility for the kind of students they are producing.

“One way of seeing the results is that the students failed but could it not also mean that this is the quality of lecturers that they have as well? Yes, students may have their individual weaknesses, but the lecturers need to explain more”.

When asked for his own opinion on the mass failure in his faculty, a 400 level student identified different factors like cramming, imbalanced examination timetable, bad style of teaching and inadequate preparation of students for examinations.

He expatiated as follows: “La cram, La pour. Not everyone has the capacity to cram bulky content, and most of our lecturers in OAU are more concerned with pouring out what they gave to us in class forgetting that understanding is all that matters.

“The timetable is bad, as it favours one tutorial group more than the others. While some groups had like three core exams back to back, others had a smooth timetable for a particular week”.

He continued: “Bad style of teaching, some lecturers will come to class and just teach without the understanding of the students. And on the part of students, I won’t say we are lazy, but some students that were asked to withdraw were so concerned about “making money” while they lag in their academics”, he disclosed.

On the percentage of students and courses affected by the failure in the faculty, another student explained that virtually half of the faculty was affected, and this makes the situation so worrisome.

“Honestly the system is really bad and it should be checked. Our lecturers should please be merciful, because this action is not just killing dreams and future, it’s killing our parents as well”.

He further listed some negative developments in the faculty which affected the results, saying there was lack of good relationship between some lecturers and some students; lack of 24 hours access to the Faculty Library during the last examination, unlike during the previous dean’s tenure, when the library was opened 24 hours. “During the last exams, the library was only opened 8am-8pm, and only one classroom was made available for students to read during examination”.

When contacted through phone call for clarification on the matter, the Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Moses Akanmu, declined discussing details with Pharmanewsonline on the situation. He, however, noted that the faculty was preparing for students to resit failed courses, from February 10 to 20, 2020.

“What I can say for now is that we are working on resit of courses, and not all results are out. So it is after the resit courses are completed that we can validly say if there was mass failure or not”, Akanmu stated.

Pharmanewsonline gathered at the weekend that the Pharmacy students of OAU had taken to social media to lament the gross failure in the recently released results of their 2018/2019 academic session.

Some of the results as displayed on Nairaland Forum showed that 200 level students had 60 passes, 77 resits, 52 repeats and 17 withdrawals.

300 level students’ results indicated 38 passes, 60 resits, 37 repeats, and 17 withdrawals.

Part 4 or four level results had 22 passes, 73 resits, 30 repeats and one withdrawal.