COURSE AND TMA DEFICIENCIES : Mgt Enjoins Students To Re-register their Courses, Re-submit TMAs

The Management of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), has said students who can no longer view their registered courses, exams, submitted and pending Tutor Marked Assignments (TMAs) should visit their study centers' Information and Communication Technology (ICT) department to drop and re-register their courses. 

While addressing students in an orientation programme at NOUN, Benin-Study Center yesterday, the management noted that the institution is not oblivious of the inconveniences facing her students at present, but enjoined them not to lose hope as all will be well soon. 

Also, they admonished the affected students to submit their course registration slips containing the specific challenge(s)  bedevilling them beneath the slip. 

This, the management said, would enable them resolve the issues by dropping the students' registered courses and examinations, refund the registration money so the students can re-register them and re-submit the TMAs. 

Although this strategy has been efficient, a cross section of NOUN students believe it is a ploy by the management to recover the alleged '' programme error deficient fees'' paid by students who registered their Industrial Training (IT) and Projects at N3,000. 

Recall that earlier this semester, IT and project registration fees respectively N10,000  and N15,000 were slashed to 3,000. 

This dropped the jaws of many students as they gave kudos to the institution's Vice-Chancellor, Prof Abdalla Uba Adamu thinking it was a new innovation, a permanent fee slash. 

Recall also, that recently, the institution unveiled that the slash was due to some programme error in the school portal, and sequel to that, reversed the fees to the initial N10,000 and N15,000 respectively. 

A student who spoke to REPOTA ATLARGE on the condition of anonymity however believes the recent disappearing of registered courses, exams and TMAs is not an error, but a tactics to recover the deficit fees from students who had registered their ITs and Projects during the alleged programme error.

According to the student, '' the school management disappeared our registered courses, exams and TMAs from the portal to enable them recover the deficits from students who registered their ITs and projects at N3,000, instead of N10,000 and N15,000 respectively. 

''This is the plan: assuming you paid N3,000 for your IT or project registration, when they drop it, your three thousand naira will no longer be enough to re-register it since it's now back to N10, 000 for IT, and 15,000 for project.

 This means you will be forced to pay in to your portal a balance of N7,000 or N12,000 as the case may be, which we had all hailed the VC thinking he had reduced our fees. 

''Just as they have succeeded in recovering their deficit funds, students demand they refund all students' e-wallet funds which have disappeared with the former portal. If they don't do that, it would be an aberration, the management's inhumanity to her humble students '' 

By Emeke Nwaoboli (Repota Atlarge)