In response to the faculty of education and humanities administrators and the dean of students’ office to force half of a class (15 students) of business education to retake “Type Writers” course unit (BBE13) in first semester 2019/2020 academic year, the students have vied to take the university to court.
This act was condemned by the students’ council as unfair and unrealistic. This resulted from the students having sat for the 2018/2019 BBE examination as scheduled in the examination time table but failed to do the practical examinations due to poor organisation of the examination materials. The university claimed that the faculty type writer machines were spoilt and destroyed pending repair.
The university failed to provide the examination materials as part of its main roles to the student’s body especially during the examination time that renders the students faultless, or else they will stand corrected in the courts of law. The university also failed to issue formal communication to the students body especially the affected classes an accurate assurance to the students of its inability to timely provide such critical information. The students were later forced to sit for the examination outside the university examination time table passed and approved by the university council.
The lecturer did record the marks scored by each student in the first draft but when the second draft was released, most the students were given retakes with claims that they intentionally left the examination process. The dean of students misused his office and authority to psychologically interrogate students and warned them in a class meeting that their examination marks for type writer would be removed and all those students would be given retakes.
The head of department of Business department Mr Odongkara Joseph told the class that all the issues of their retakes had nothing to do with his decision but it was an order from above.
The letter drafted and pinned on the university notice board was meant to serve the following purposes; demand the university with immediate effect to withdraw the decision ruled against the students within seven days because they do not deserve the heavy penalty, the university should give chance to those students to sit for the paper but not as a retake since they were not granted 100% opportunity to measure their individual abilities.
“Any failure to positively respond to the addressed matter within seven days will be recorded in the history of Gulu University as the first administrative miscalculation to cross the red channel where angels fear to land” was highlighted in bold letters signed by the faculty president education and co-signed by the academic secretary.
