Quadri Salimon
The Students’ Union of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta on Tuesday, held a mini congress which hosted Leaders of major associations on campus, to rub minds and ultimately proffer solutions to challenges facing the students on campus.
The meeting hosted stakeholders in various unions such as; The Students’ Representative Councils, Muslim Students Society of Nigeria MAPOLY, Press Club MAPOLY, the Junior Chamber International, JCCF MAPOLY, and the indigenous associations.
The Speaker of the House, Hon. Attu Suru who mastered the event told the audience that the purpose of the gathering was to hear from the stakeholders, the challenges facing their members, who double as students of the institution, both at the departmental level and in the institution as a whole.
He said the purpose of the meeting was to ensure that these stakeholders are also involved in the process of achieving accountability and a better institute of learning, stating that they would serve as grassroots sources of credible information.
Speaking at the event, various challenges were highlighted, some of which are; Inadequate toilet facilities, infrastructural deficiencies, inadequate healthcare facilities, Inconsiderate method of school fees payment, the conducive learning environment, breathtaking registration processes, malfunctioning school portal, unstable academic calendar, academic staff’s strike, amongst others.
MAPOLY Is Now A Business Centre, Student Claims
A student of the institution, who preferred to remain anonymous for security reasons, regarded the institution as a business center. The student stated this while citing a series of instances where the management has been taking money and not discharging their duties to the students as expected.
He said, “There’s no facility at the health center. A coursemate fainted during school hours and we took her to the Health Center only to be given ORS. The ORS is N150 and the table water is N100 but we were later asked to pay N500”, the student claimed.
He also called for the proper revisit of the institution’s Malpractice Constitution. He stated that in instances where students are given malpractice forms, they are not usually penalized as soon as they should be.
He cited an example of some students that were issued the form but were not summoned before the malpractice eradication panel for questioning when the offense was committed, rather they were made to stay on campus for ages and even return for the following semester.
He said the students were allowed to pay their school fees, for the following semester and pass through the stress of registration and all others before they were eventually sent home without refund of their school fees or any other.
Furthermore, the student added that “admission of some students are forfeited based on combining two O’level results which their year of sitting does not correspond after they were admitted with the same results, paid acceptance fee and proceeded with registrations.”
He, therefore, pleaded with the school management to see to the challenges and address them as soon as possible.
However, after getting a basket full of complaints from the students, the Student Union president, Hezekiah appreciated the audience for honoring the invitation and assured them that the complaints have been noted and would be presented to the school management for necessary amendments to be made, as well as to achieve a conducive learning environment.
