Just like the unprecedented COVID19, on the 18th March 2020, the President of the Republic of Uganda, H.E Yoweri Kaguta Museveni delivered a live speech, with unprecedented counter measures in response to the onslaught by the pandemic. Days that followed, he would be seen making television appearances like the star he has grown to be become over the years that he has gripped power.
In an (un)expected move, the president shut down institutions of learning all over the country with effect from the 20th March 2020 (a few weeks to the actual end of the semesters), mandating that they all closed by midday that day.
Uganda Christian University (UCU), the other “villain” in all this pandemic mess, days later released what it called the “Take Home Exam Policy Guidelines” to detail how the university would ensure the continuity of some of her essential activities like the conduct of end of term examinations (exams). The guidelines would ensure that the continuing and finalist students are able to finish their semesters and proceed to the next scheduled activities: possibility of graduation for the finalists, and a promotion for the continuing ones.
The take home exam, or what others have decided to call the “online exams” are scheduled to take place on the 6th April 2020 amidst the national wide lockdown. The same have been received with the most aggression on social media, mostly Twitter. Under various tweets, with hashtags “UCUExamsShouldProceed”, while others un – hash tagged. The students and several tweeps have expressed their opinions about the exams. On the 1st April, a Member of Parliament for Amuru Constituency Hon. Olanya Gilbert also presented the discussion for debate before Parliament asking that the Ministry of Education intervene in the plight of only some of the students.
Some of the arguments against the take home exams as highlighted by the Hon. Olanya are that the students are not able to access internet in the lockdown, and that their (students) parents have not been given an opportunity to raise tuition after their economic activities were affected by the presidential directives and the pandemic. Other arguments are that some of the students do not have smartphones or laptops that they would use to do the exams and that they do not have material to prepare (even when they were just a few days to the examinations. The exams even before the pandemic were still scheduled for 6th April).
From the reading of the somewhat clear guidelines university (some officially unaddressed issues exist), the university lays down the procedures that were or would be adopted to have the examinations administered.
Under guideline 2, the university states that it would avail the take home examinations to the students via “e – learning platforms, emails, WhatsApp, and other means that shall be approved by the university from time to time” for a one – time download. The students are simply required to access these platforms to download the questions, write down their responses and submit them via their faculty email accounts available in the guidelines. The guidelines do not seem to say that the answers can be submitted via other platforms besides email.
“Easter (nomenclature for the semester) registered students shall be eligible for the take home examinations and shall receive internet bundles support from the university to enable them access the examinations and carry out meaningful research” reads paragraph 7 of the guidelines. Use of “meaningful research” here seems to suggest that internet was to be provided to the students days before the exams but that obligation doesn’t seem to have been satisfied as the students have never received that facilitation yet the exams are a weekend away.
All the questions for the various course units will be released on the 6th April and the students will be expected to submit their responses by the 24th April, which is about 18 days for the whole exam period.
During admissions of students, one of the requirements that the university emphasizes is a laptop. Students are not even allowed to register before they can demonstrate that they have a laptop (it is possible that some students borrow other students laptops for registration). In fact, many of the class activities require one to be logged in to WhatsApp or email. Whether or not the students have these devices is an issue, but the university operates under the bona fide presumption that registration requirements have been satisfied by the students. But still even without these devices, students have been able to participate in their class activities.
Uncertainties exist as the guidelines do not lay out what form of responses are expected from the students. Impliedly, leaving this open without specification, would mean that the university accepts both typed and handwritten responses to the questions. Where the answers are handwritten the students would have to scan them (using an actual scanner or their phones) so that they could be emailed. Acquiring the questions from a person with a smartphone or laptop (like friends or using devices of family members), and handwriting the responses in the absence of a laptop or where one has unreliable typing speeds, do not seem to be explicitly or impliedly excluded. However, an official at the university says that this will be determined by the instructions in the question sheets.
It is also not conclusive from the statement as to whether students who have not paid tuition will be allowed to sit the exams. The guidelines seem intent on restricting them to the students who have fully paid up, but from the information available, whether or not one has paid tuition, the questions can still be accessed and the answers can be submitted. Comments circulating from within the students seem to suggest that the university will allow students who have not paid tuition to sit the exams, though no statement has officially been released to that effect.
However, an official at the university in a text cleared the air. In the text, the university confirms that “all on-sem students will be given data unless they didn’t update contacts. Whether they cleared on not.”
The official further adds that the students in the above category will be able to submit their answers but will not be graded until they pay tuition. The same has been reiterated by the guild president of the university in a circulating WhatsApp audio.
UCU is commendable for her innovation towards academics in Uganda. The university has been known to pioneer in many fields, for instance, UCU first introduced pre – entry examinations for law. The same were later adopted by the Law Development Center and other law schools country wide. Students at the faculty of law of the University in 2018 also started doing compulsory foreign language classes (French, Chinese, and German), and the use of tutorial assistants to impart knowledge in the students, what others are crudely calling “spoon feeding” among other innovative ideas.
Within the guidelines, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi states one of the motives behind the take home examinations.
“Together (the university and the task force that will oversee the take home exam) will be able to deliver an examination process that is a precursor for similar interventions in the future, and which will set an example for other universities and for this nation” he says in the introductory paragraphs of the guidelines.
Earlier this week, an opinion piece was published in the Bloomberg under the title “Science Isn’t A Clear Cut Pandemic Guide” wherein the author reveals that what is known about COVID19 is premised on scientific models with probabilities and estimations that are not a certainty of normalcy. How long the world will be held captive is uncertain.
Whether the threat by COVID19 ends sooner or longer, what is being done by UCU is going to be impactful on how institutions will conduct their future educational activities. Distance learning that seems alien to several Ugandans will continue to gain traction as a result of the university innovation. It remains a fact that this pandemic is causing disruption in many global activities. Incidentally and importantly institutions of learning in Uganda cannot continue to lag behind the digital race.
It will not be surprising if after the exams have been successful, several institutions of learning start to administer the same digital examinations such that their students can also do their papers within the lockdown as opposed to extending the semester to God knows when.
Online exams or not, students country wide also seem unproductive at the moment. This is the best time for them to read and learn something new within their syllabi, prepare and do their end of semester examinations and be promoted or graduated.
The Writer is a former student at UCU.
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