Open Letter To NOUN VC: Why TMA Should Be Re-Opened

Dear Vice Chancellor, 

First and foremost, I want to use this medium to appreciate what you and your management team are doing in repositioning, restructuring and rebuilding the image of our great institution. Your effort and strive for excellence are already yielding positive results, especially in the recent assent by the President of the Federal Republic, His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, to the NOUN Amendment Bill. Congratulations one more time, sir, even as we pray that God continue to give you and your management team the wisdom and strength to take this institution to greater heights.

However sir, it is pertinent to let you know that even with all the successes and achievements within this short period of your administration, if the students who are the major stakeholders are not well taken care of, your efforts will amount to nothing. 

It is possible you might not be aware of some of the points I wish to raise in this letter, but I think it will be wise if I bring to your knowledge these issues before things get out of hand. They are as follows: 

1. Last semester, the Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) were released in batches, and each of the TMA lasted for at least three weeks, making it nine weeks in total. But this semester has been the shortest semester in the history of the school. The school resumed in September and the three TMAs were released together in mid-October and POP exams started on the 2nd of November. Even when the TMAs were released, students were already preparing for examinations and there was massive apprehension since there was not enough time for the majority of the students to prepare for the examinations. The POP lasted for three weeks and the TMA portal was closed immediately after POP exams. That means the TMAs only lasted for five weeks compared to last semester’s, which were a total of nine weeks.

2. In some courses, TMAs were not well programmed. For example, in FMS304 TMA1 as well as in POL316 TMA1. During examinations, the errors were corrected and the students felt that they can take them after the main examinations. However, the portal was closed immediately after the exams and the affected students were not able to sort out the issues.

3. Final year accounting students also had two of their courses, ACC418 and ACC419, not well programed as well. All the indicated options were wrong. They couldn’t submit the TMAs, either. To make matters worse, this is their last semester, and if the TMA portal is not re-opened, it means they will have to come back to register those courses again as carryovers. They will also have to pay compulsory fees and examination fees again. This is a clear case of injustice, one that needs to be urgently redressed by your administration.

4. Some of the TMAs were not released on time, while some were released on Sunday before the portal was closed on Monday the next day. I implore you, sir, to give directives for the reopening of the portal, so that these affected students can do their TMAs.

5. The freshmen were the most affected by the closed portal. There was neither an orientation nor any medium for them to get to know about the school and understand how things are done within the institution. Due to lack of proper information, some of them registered very late, and before they could realize what was going on, the portal was already closed. 

6. Sir, even if the school wanted to close the portal on the date it was closed, I think there should have been adequate information concerning that on the school website. However, there was nothing like that at all. This is wrong.

The school management must make conscious effort to ensure it satisfies the yearnings and aspirations of the student at all times. 

Sir, I know you are a good man with a good heart, a seasoned public administrator with a flair for doing the right thing at all times. I also know you will not stand by and watch your students fail their examinations for reasons that are way beyond their control, especially after going through a lot to register for the courses within that short frame of time. I hope you will treat this issue with the seriousness and urgency it deserves, and ensure the dissatisfaction of the affected students are addressed.

Finally sir, I implore you to use your good offices to consider all these pressing points listed above and make verifications to ascertain if they are true, before taking the needed action.

I will be looking forward to your favourable response on this pressing issue.

Thank you. 

Yours faithfully,

Lordson Evans 

(MSC, 2018).

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