IAUE VC bans compulsory sale of textbooks

Determined to consolidate the security of its students, the management of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education said it would build perimeter fences around all female students’ ostels at the institution, Myschoolnews gathered.

Security in such facilities would also be beefed up, just as male students’ hostels would no longer be built close to their female counterparts.

The Acting Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Okechuku Onuchuku, announced the new safety measures during an interactive session with the students on Tuesday, August 29, 2023, at the auditorium.

The Vice-Chancellor, while emphasising the ban on the compulsory sale of textbooks and other forms of extortion by the staff, charged the lecturers to make available the sources of their teaching resources to the students and encouraged the students to report those who harassed them to him.

“Anybody that forces you to buy textbooks or harasses you to pay money to pass an examination, report him to me.”

To allay their fears that those who report such unethical practices would be penalized, the Vice-Chancellor gave out his direct phone number to the students. However, he charged the students not to make themselves vulnerable, as he cautioned them to study well and obey the laws of the university. 

The Vice-Chancellor reminded the students that as teachers, their duty was to guide them to become responsible citizens and reminded them not to waste the opportunity their parents offered them to improve their well-being.

“Your parents sent you here to study, do not allow it to waste.”

Insisting that the students should pay only university-approved charges, he directed the ICT unit to ensure that such approved levies should be made public to the students.

Prof. Onuchuku, who maintained that the university policy of paying statutory school charges in two instalments which he initiated upon the assumption of office was still in place, advised the students to leverage the policy instead of not paying anything at all.

He decried the wanton destruction of the university facilities, particularly in the lecture rooms and the hostels, pleaded with the students to use the facilities as if they were their personal property while assuring that his administration would continue to provide the needed infrastructure within the limits of available funds.

While cautioning lecturers to stop tearing the examination scripts of students caught in malpractices, but instead report such to the appropriate bodies, he announced that the anti-sorting unit and the examination ethics committees have been reinforced to handle such cases.

“Treat the students like your children. What you cannot do to your children, don’t do it to them”, Prof. Onuchuku reiterated.

The Vice-Chancellor further announced a stop to all forms of post-final examination celebrations, particularly where students hang on vehicles and drive recklessly while challenging the students to engage more in intellectual activities instead of frivolous jamborees during students’ week activities.

“Let us do things that will portray university culture”, he advised.

Issues raised by the students were the provision of campus shuttles, an extension of electricity beyond 11 p.m. when there is no public supply, a functional bookshop where students could buy books at affordable prices, regular maintenance of the hostels, and delay in the release of semester results, among others.

Earlier, the Acting Registrar, Mr Donald Okogbaa, said the event was for the students to have a heart-to-heart discussion with the vice-chancellor.

He described Professor Onuchuku as a father with listening ears and advised the students to say their challenges.