Osun State Polytechnic, Iree (popularly known, and herein referred to as OSPOLY), became autonomous on the 12th day of October 1992, after the creation of states in 1991 (Pg12, Ospoly Student's Guardian August 2020 Revised Edition).
In historic times, according to research, Ospoly was not known for academic excellence, it used to be an institution where people referred to, as a place to obtain certificates for self-development. It was fondly called 'Iree for show'. As time flew, the management made academic excellence their priority, and in their pursuit, introduced policies aimed at vitiating outsiders' "descriptions" of their students, having produced the most polytechnic graduates in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. They started the implementation of strict monitoring on examination systems.
The introduction of a new sitting arrangement in examination settings (which the students used to call 'One Ghana; One Congo') gave a limelight that the management had prioritized academic excellence as their watchword. The lecturers changed their marking guides to standard structures, hence, students doubled their reading capacities to meet up with the standard.
Once students took notice of the newly-introduced examination system in the school, they started doubling their reading rates, and improved on the styles with which they prepared for the examinations. Group readings started vigorously, with some students having to attend tutorial classes often. To this day, some students pay seniors to teach them courses they don't know, but at the end of the day, efforts to come out successful are nipped in the bud. This is sad.
Do we say this has to do with not being intelligent enough? Even the brightest students are not left out. Go through their answer booklets, and you will see that they have done wonderfully well. But then, when the results are out, it usually "ends in tears"!
This is not to justify examination malpractices. But then, even those who successfully engage in them come out failing. How?
In my research in the past few years--before and during the introduction of new sitting arrangements in the examination system---I found out that, these following are the major causes of OSPOLY students' mass failure.
GRASSROOT PROBLEMS:
i. Inadequate Learning Facilities: Students find it difficult to concentrate when there is lack of adequate learning facilities in a particular department. Take for instance, in 2006, using the Accountancy department as a case study, when 2,000 students were admitted and there were insufficient numbers of seats for students, research showed that the allocated hall to them, then, could only accommodate 40% of the students admitted, and while 40% students had no other choice than to stay outside the hall and know what's going inside by looking through the window, the remaining 20% of the students didn't even bother to show up, because there were no available seats for them. As expected, these 40% that received lectures in the hall, were disturbed by the voices of their colleagues staying outside and the lecturers had to walk out of the lecture hall whenever they were uncomfortable with the atmosphere of the hall. In the long run, when the examinations came, many found it difficult to pass as there was no adequate learning facility to enhance their learning assimilation. To this moment, this is still a bone of contention in some departments.
ii. Insufficient Time for School Academic Calendar:
I have argued with many of my colleagues that this year's academic calendar is too short. For the first year in school, the academic duration is supposed to be a little lengthy, why? There are many things to put in place before the exams. Very many of the lecturers don't cover syllabuses for us and we are expected to take our exams, not leaving any stone unturned. Speaking of which, it is detrimental to our study health, not to have, at least, one lecture-free week to prepare for our exams. Even if given this "lecture-free week", we still have to get certain documents ready and do other very necessary things in preparation for exams. But then, that's not the case. Funnily enough, some departments have lectures fixed, just 24 hours to commencement of the exams. On what basis, actually? All of these and more, get to the mental health of the students and we have exam anxieties because there's little time to revise.
iii. Incompetency of Course Lecturers
According to research, OSPOLY is endowed with many wonderful lecturing materials. No doubt, she remains among the top 5 best polytechnics in Nigeria and the top 500 best polytechnics in Africa because her lecturers are resourceful and well attributed in their respective fields. Moreso, when a senior lecturer is exhausted, he/she devolves lecture taking to junior collegues. A junior lecturer, who, however, is under-developed, finds it difficult to take proper control of a class. He just comes in, hurries lecture in order to, as soon as possible, leave the presence of a whopping number of students.
iv. Expectations of Parents/Guardian on students:
The pressure enforced on students while coming to school from either their parents or their guardian is just too much. Parents that are fond of making comparison of children's achievements are the genesis of students' failures. The fear of parents' insulting their wards for having poor results makes many students develop exam phobia even when the students are serious in their academic pursuits.
EXTERNAL PROBLEMS:
v. Fear of Being Unable to Find Scripts:
The rate at which exam scripts go missing in OSPOLY cannot be understimated. It is has even become a prayer point for students. Weeks ago, I was discussing with someone on the need to be more serious with our academic pursuits. I prayed that God allow us to pass. He just reluctantly said 'Amen!'. When we proceeded with the discussion, I prayed that 'we wouldn't have the horrible experience of having our scripts misplaced'. This colleague of mine had to say, 'Amen! aggressively! He even added 'In the Mighty Name Of Jesus'. Amazed, I made comparison between the two "Amens". The one against missing scripts weighed more. Sad. With no doubt, it shows how people have fear on missing script than the other one. The fear on this aspect increasingly mainly because, someone who wrote extremely well was assumed to have his/her script missing. It is not a good thing entirely. That's why people do fear alot on this aspect.
vi. Fear of invigilators' Intimidation:
A lot actually happens inside the exam hall. There are many invigilators who will intentionally concentrate on a student to give give him/her unnecessary attention and supervision, leaving other students unsupervised, just because, the student has one way or the other, offended him/her. If such student slightly turns his head, he will be in trouble. This generates fear and makes the student lose his ability to summon courage to face the exam.
vii. Intentional Mark-Down by the Lecturer:
Truth be told, there are still sadist lecturers on campus, pretending to be humanists. Whenever there is a sadist lecturer, tension arises in the students, because, no matter what they put down, the marks will not be encouraging. This is extant, not only in our Alma Mater, but also in every other institution of learning as well. A sadist lecturer makes students have exam anxieties.
viii. Fear of Exams Instilled in the students:
The creation of fear for exams by the lecturers cannot be underrated as it's one of the major factor causing the phobia. The graduands don't help situations either. They create unnecessary tension for students by instilling negative thoughts in the latter, towards the exams. They engage in what is popularly known as 'Do Me I Do You'. They fail to tell the current students the real things to expect, and rather tell them otherwise in order to divert their attentions. The latter, unaware of this, fall for the ruse.
ix. Competition:
I intentionally want to treat this factor as the last. 90% of the students ventur into competition with their friends and with that, they eventually rush out and they start creating tension for themselves. Competing with a friend is not good for you. Rather, compete with YOURSELF!
Using a friend of mine as a case study, when we saw our final result as ND students, he overtook his friends and suddenly he noticed all of them distanced from him. He studied the situation carefully and he embarked on his own research, to know what went wrong Eventually, he got to know that they were annoyed at him for making his papers very much better than they, when they actually contributed a lot to his success. He smiled and said, 'I wrote what I knew and I was awarded the grade that I deserved'. Since then, he had known that, some friends were embarking on unnecessary competition and they created unnecessary tension amidst themselves.
Examination systems in Ospoly Iree requires one to be self-reliant. To read aggressively. To study day and night and also to give adequate attention to the general idea of the lecturers.
With everything I have analysed here, I want the general students to agree with me that exam fears can be curbed by taking some precautionary measures.
Always do the following:
a. Stay positive.
b. Preparation is the primary key that helps.
c. Never compare yourself with other students
d. Work smarter rather than work harder.
e. Meditate to keep your mind calm and peaceful.
f. Revise all the topics you have studied.
g. Eat well.
h. Be physically fit.
i. Have enough sleep.
I wish all the Osun State Polytechnic, Iree students Success in the forthcoming examinations.
I am Akande Michael, O (ACTION)
An Analyst and a Risk Manager.
Business Administration and Management.
Osun State Polytechnic, Iree.
