Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - UNN Implements Student Evaluation

Oga Toyin,

As you probably know by now, I'm way past the point of being polite on this matter. Our children's futures are being jeopardized by tyrannical, abusive, and lazy lecturers and you want me to observe some discursive decorum or discuss the tragedy in euphemisms and pretentious prose. Abeg park well.

Let me tell you; I speak for many on this list at home and abroad. Several people, as you know, wrote on this list in support of my position. Others choose to remain in the background for understandable reasons while writing to me privately to both agree and encourage my truth telling. Some of them have told me that I have barely scratched the surface of the problem. The most courageous folks are not folks like me and you; they are the ones within the system who have written publicly on this list to echo my position. The difference between me and others who have written on this malaise is merely one of tone. I choose to be deliberately provocative and blunt in going after the lazy, absentee, and abusive lecturers and the ASUU goons that protect and reward them. Stylistic differences aside, you'd be shocked at how many people have now come around to recognize that a major problem, if not the major, problem of higher education in Nigeria is poor and non-existent instruction.

If some of you want to play the ostrich and defend ASUU for being an archaic protector and subsidizer of bad and mediocre instructors, fine. I'll not stop you from taking Panadol for another man's headache. But know that UNN is just the beginning. At first it appeared that they were not hearing us or that they were hostile. Denial and hostility have turned to acceptance. It is inevitable; students are being empowered to resist the tyranny. Other universities will follow. You defenders of the status quo will be left in the past.

On Thu, Feb 23, 2017 at 4:29 AM, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com> wrote:

😀

All who disagree with Moses that 'ASUU [are] the perennial obstructionists and enemies of accountability in the Nigerian university system [and will] will oppose [ this initiative] and threaten to strike' are ' ASUU apologists and public defenders of professorial laziness[ known for ] predictably unconvincing defense of the status quo'.

Please take note of this hermeneutic law before you open your ASUU Collaborating Mouth to say anything or lift your ASUU Bewitched Fingers to challenge this Word from the Mountain.

A word is enough for the wise.

From a Person Who Does Not Wish to Contradict the Deep Wisdom Expressed by the Crusader for Justice

On 22 February 2017 at 17:16, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> wrote:

This is great news. I understand that my alma mater, Bayero University, once implemented student evaluations. I think it was during the VCship of Professor Jega. I don't know where it stands together. As a long time advocate for instructor accountability in the Nigerian higher education system, this memo has made my day. Slowly but surely it will happen. Lecturers who are paid to teach will have to teach, instruct, mentor, and guide students or jeopardize their employment. They will also make some effort to actually teach rather than simply read from dog-eared notes prepared 30 years ago and handed to them. They will have to at least show up in the classroom and be available to their students and advisees. 

Ideally, the NUC should be requiring student evaluation of all universities, but ASUU, the perennial obstructionists and enemies of accountability in the Nigerian university system, will oppose it and threaten to strike. No problem. Let perceptive VCs who get it lead the way. Others will follow. Eventually, professorial tyranny and impunity in the Nigerian university system will crumble when student evaluation becomes a factor in promotion decisions. 

To be sure, student evaluations have their flaws and are not the only solution to professorial impunity in the Nigerian academy. It is however a good start and the best tool that can easily be implemented with the minimum amount of restructuring and reform.

Ok, ASUU apologists and public defenders of professorial laziness, unleash your predictably unconvincing defense of the status quo.

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